"Blow that thing!" shouted Cage.
But Stroud hesitated, coming toward Anna and Cage with it in his hands, studying the situation below. There were still any number of the creatures at the breach before the cavern.
"We have to frighten them back inside," said Stroud, "before we detonate."
"What?" Cage was incredulous. "Abe, they may disperse at any moment now! It's better we take out some of them with the explosives as none of them!"
"Just keep them at bay with the gunfire!"
"What're you going to do?"
"Both of you, get into the helicopter. But keep shooting."
"What?"
"Now, Lou! Now!"
Stroud got into the cockpit and ran a finger quickly over the control panel. He was an experienced flier. He took the helicopter up as several more tenacious beasts scurried to latch on to the skids. Stroud took these with him, wheeling toward the cave mouth.
"Drop some of the gas reserves, Lou!"
"Gas, now?"
"Don't argue! They've been conditioned to fear the gas, so give them gas. They'll all crawl back into their damned holes and then we hit 'em with the plastique."
"Of course," said Anna. "It's got to work."
"You know, Stroud, I must never underestimate you," said Lou.
The gas was dropped, and it had the desired effect of sending all the rampaging beasts back to the supposed safety of the underground world they inhabited.
"Bombs away!" shouted Stroud, pressing the lever for the explosives. Below them they watched the gases and dirt cloud cover the entire area of the mound built upon the limestone ledge. It caved in as if held together by matchsticks. Most of the beasts must surely be crushed, and those remaining alive were buried alive.
Anna began to cry, her fears and all of the anxiety of the past twenty-four hours rushing out of her in a cascade of relief. "Finally ... finally, Kerac is dead."
Kerac had watched the fight at the helicopter, and he stood firm as the bullets rained around him there at the cave's mouth. He was angry that Stroud had escaped with the Indian woman, and him left with two dead Stroud followers, killed not by Kerac and his people, but by their own kind. Kerac thought that Stroud's kind were vicious and ruthless and would stop at nothing to destroy his kind.
As these thoughts passed through his mind, Kerac had watched the helicopter rise again and begin to dust the werewolf's world with the deadly toxic gas once more. Kerac had bellowed and howled and warned and shoved his people back into the safety of their caves, but rushing back inside, he saw something odd like a red flower at the top of the ceiling.
Kerac did not know what this was, but he knew it had to be Stroud's and therefore harmful. He dared not touch the red thing, but he feared doing nothing either.
He grabbed hold of the older female who had shown so much wisdom, and his eyes told her of his fear. She led him deeper and deeper into the cavern to the very center, where there was a large, underground reservoir. She pointed to it and suddenly the walls were caving in with an ear-shattering blast, followed by another, and another and another.
Kerac leapt into the water in an effort to save himself while the old mother was crushed by falling stone. A handful of others who had followed Kerac down here, trailing behind the old woman, also leapt into the water. Huge boulders began to cascade toward the water, and Kerac, taking a last breath of air, dove for the bottom, where he saw a strange, magical light. He swam and swam for the light until he was certain his lungs would explode.
Kerac surfaced outside the caves and the first sound in his ears was the whirr of the helicopter as it moved off into the distance, circled and came around. They were looking for survivors, firing on any of the creatures that ran or crawled from the rubble. Kerac dove beneath the water with the return of the helicopter. When he did so, he came face-to-face with another of his kind who had escaped by following him. She was the female who had fought for him and won. Kerac took her to the surface with him, cautious of being sighted from above, but the helicopter was concentrating on the other side of the hills.
The hideous gunfire rumbled to where they bobbed in the water. Kerac hurried her from the water and into the safety of the dense foliage nearby. Here, amid the clamor of the searching helicopter with the victorious, hated Stroud, and all his guns, Kerac held the female until she stopped trembling.
When the helicopter was away and peace came again, it was nightfall and Kerac made love to his new mate. As his lust overtook him, he thought of the son he would one day have, and he thought of the many others he would bring into the world.
Kerac shoved the wolfwoman onto her face again, roaring his fetid breath at her, fuming at her. It made him feel better to do so.
The woman-wolf had hung on Kerac for hours now, whimpering, overwhelmed at the loss of all her kind. They'd made their way to safety of a kind, nestled amid boulders in the side of a hill thick with brush. The female was getting on Kerac's nerves, the whimpering driving him to distraction. She clawed at him and mewed and mewed, as if he could do anything to lessen her pain. She had several gashes in her legs and one at the rib cage but was still fit and hale.
Kerac's rage had taken all his attention, threatening to entirely consume him; his blood was afire with hatred for the thing called Stroud. Stroud had, with one fell swoop, wiped out Kerac's kind and it had been Kerac's own fault, having led Stroud to them. The female at his side tried to soothe his pain and anger and frustration but this only served to enrage him further.
He had growled and swiped at her, and at one point he pushed her so roughly that she fell over a rock and was gone some time before she found her way back up to him. When she persisted, he attacked her, beating her horribly with his feet and tearing at her with his single claw. He stared at her now where she had crept off, whimpering. Something even in her cowering and whimpering further excited Kerac, and he came at her again, sinking his teeth into her. She fought back, tearing at him, drawing blood. Kerac tore away tufts of fur and made her screech in pain as he dug in deeper with his teeth, completely cowering her once more.
Kerac loosened his grip and she turned over for him, and Kerac felt a violent lust for her. He was so violent in his lovemaking that she was beaten beyond submission. When he lifted from her, she was in an unconscious state. Kerac left her like that, vowing to return.
He had Stroud to deal with. Whatever else might happen, Kerac knew he must kill Stroud. Kerac also believed that he knew where Stroud would be. He began to make his way back to the place where Stroud and the others had given him his false freedom.
Kerac's color, the way he moved and blended in with the surrounding blue to brown woods, made him a ghost here. Stroud wouldn't be satisfied until he saw Kerac's body. The vicious creature that he was, Stroud would simply stay on forever or until he was sure. Stroud would be there, recuperating, renegotiating with the others, planning a morning reconnaissance and another after that until he was sure. In the meantime, Kerac would see that Stroud's last sure thing was a quick death.
Stroud's evil image was burned into Kerac's mind along with that of Stroud's female, the Indian woman. Kerac would like to infect her with his venom and make her his new mate.
Kerac hurried, tearing at the thick branches that attempted to stay his march back into the foray. It was a long way back to where the helicopter would have taken them. They would be searching here where Kerac was now. They wouldn't expect him to go on the offensive; they would not be looking for him to be in their own backyard.
I want Stroud,
he kept telling himself as he fought his way through the darkness. I want Stroud's blood.
-23-
Anna Laughing More poured the last of the coffee into Stroud's cup and the two of them looked at the dancing reflection of the firelight in one another's eyes. They had had a long discussion, another "fight" as it were. Stroud wanted Lou and her to take the chopper straight for Merimac, to remove her from any further possible danger. She was all for it, but not fo
r leaving him here alone.
Stroud continued the argument as Lou puttered about the tent beside the helicopter. They had returned to the site where they had first let Kerac go free. It seemed at a safe distance, and it had been a good place to drop the bird the first time.
"Will you please just listen to reason?"
"Me? You want me to listen to reason?" she asked.
"Is that like hard for an Indian or something?" he snapped. "Look, sweetheart, in all probability Kerac is dead. He died along with the others. But we've got to be dead certain. Short of digging up the bones, we've got to do a few day's reconnoitering hereabouts--just to be on the safe side. Lou knows enough about the helicopter to get you out and--"
"Forget it. If you two stay, so do I."
Cage shouted in an exasperated tone from where he stood. "You're both fools, you realize! We're short on supplies and ammunition, Stroud. We don't have any more to give than we already have given physically and mentally, or don't you get it? And honestly, if I flew out of here, Abe, I'd be hard-pressed to come back."
"Then do it, Lou, but take her the hell with you."
Stroud got up and walked off, disappearing into the surrounding darkness. He was agitated and his agitation worried his two friends who looked at one another now.
"God, he's a stubborn man," she said.
"Runs in the family, I understand."
"You know Abe better than anyone, Lou. What's troubling him, besides the casualties of war we incurred?"
"He's a very intuitive man. Deep down, he must think Kerac is still alive."
"But that's impossible."
"I would've thought so."
"Has he ever been known to be wrong?"
"Not once."
"There's always a first time."
"He's gone to think it through, I guess. Who knows, maybe by daybreak, we'll all fly out of here. God knows we deserve it."
Kerac fought with the night. He didn't want Stroud to see another sunrise. He pushed himself to the very limits. He raced through flatland, scaled rocky passages and dug in like the wolf he was on the higher ground. He smelled his own scent along the line of his earlier passing. He saw the heaps of bodies lying fetid and rotting among the foul meat that the evil mind of Stroud had provided for his race. He saw others of his kind in this nightmare landscape lying in rigid poses, killed by the gas that Stroud's devils had concocted for them. His hatred for Stroud doubled and redoubled as he neared the man; his hatred became a palpitating lump in his breast. It must be released; his hatred must be appeased or it would kill him.
As Kerac drew nearer and nearer, however, his mind conceived of a worse fate than death for Stroud. Kerac thought of letting Stroud live, but not as a man. Kerac thought of how Stroud would like life as one of Kerac's kind, doing Kerac's bidding, being subjugated daily for the rest of his life by Kerac and Kerac's woman.
The idea had merit; it certainly appealed to Kerac. He would do the same with Stroud as with the Indian woman. He could use them to repopulate his race. A keen irony in that for sure. Perhaps killing Stroud outright was too easy and too kind.
As Kerac approached he began to pick up a scent on the wind, the scent of humans. In the far distance he saw a campfire. Now he had a beacon and he went straight for it, still toying with the idea of making Stroud one with him. With Stroud's cunning on Kerac's side, perhaps whole new worlds could be conquered...
Alone for the first time in days, Abraham Stroud tried to get in touch with his feelings. Something like fuzzy tentacles played along the coils of his inner ear, trying desperately for his attention, but in all the commotion and heat of battle, it was impossible to know exactly what it was that bothered him so. Now, staring out at the moonless night, lights blinking from a million constellations, he tried to understand his reservations about leaving this horrible place. Was it possible that Kerac was still alive?
"Yes"
came a whispered voice from deep within him.
Stroud recognized the voice as that of his deceased grandfather. The old man's ghost had saved his life before in just such a fashion. Why should he not listen now?
Stroud opened his mind up to the suggestion, opened his being up to his grandfather's ghost. Ananias Stroud did not disappoint him.
Stroud, cross-legged on the earth outcropping that overlooked the heavens, sensed the truth. Kerac lived. Kerac was near and getting nearer. Kerac was bent on Stroud's destruction.
More than ever, he wanted Anna Laughing More away from here. More than ever, he knew that it would come down to a fight to the death between himself and Kerac. Kerac knew this, his grandfather's ghost knew this, the entire cosmic world seemed to know, except for Stroud's two innocent friends behind him at the campfire.
Stroud got up and went back slowly toward the fire. He sensed that Kerac was dangerously close and closing in, driven by hatred of him. Stroud moved in on Anna and Lou and their eyes grew wide with fear when they saw that he held up a gun to them.
"You two will take orders from me and do as I say! Do you understand, damn you!"
"Abe, this is unnecessary," replied Cage.
"Do you really expect us to believe that you would use that thing on us?" she asked, calling his bluff.
Abe said flatly, "Just leave me what ammo we have left, leave me some of the gas, the equipment I need, and both of you get the hell out of here. He's coming for me."
Anna was shaking her head but Lou took hold of her and said, "We'd better do as he asks, Anna."
"No!" She pulled away and fell toward Stroud, who grabbed her and pushed her toward the helicopter, saying, "I'll hog-tie you if I have to, Anna, I swear it. He's on his way here, and he only wants me."
"So, you just provide yourself for him? That's madness! Let us help!"
"You can't help. Not this time. You'd only get hurt, badly hurt."
Stroud put her aboard the helicopter, calling for Lou to take it out of here. With the helicopter roaring off, Stroud looked around at his puny arsenal and the campfire. These were the only things that stood between him and darkness. He knew that Kerac did not want him completely dead; he knew now that Kerac wanted to make of him what Kerac himself was, and that it was an idea that hatched in the mind of the monster as he neared. One bite and Stroud was a lycanthrope, a werewolf.
A rustle in the bushes at the base of the hill made his insides stir. He wished for light and looked around to locate the flares that Lou had left behind.
He prepared for the contest, securing his position, seeing to his weapon. One of the vats of silver nitrate stood in the compound, as did several high-powered weapons loaded and ready. A small canister of gas, the last of it, was nearby, but Stroud hadn't had time to get the mask and oxygen unit necessary to use the gas. Still, as a last resort...
Stroud quickly worked to organize as many booby traps as he could, relying on what he had learned in the military. He set out a trip wire around the perimeter of the camp. He placed the silver nitrate concentration nearby, sloshing the shiny, mercurylike material onto his hands as he wheeled the open container closer to the fire. "I'll dip the sonofabitch in it," he told the reflection of himself in the pool of silver-black liquid once it was in place. He placed the gas canister close by as well. He loaded the three weapons at his disposal and he prayed for light to come before Kerac did.
The last thing Stroud did was to locate a thick, felled branch. This he took to the campfire with him, placing one end in the fire, allowing it to burn while he sat on the other end.
He sat before the campfire now, listening, ready for anything, when Kerac suddenly appeared opposite him as if from nowhere. Kerac's size seemed enormous silhouetted against the firelight. Kerac rose up grizzly fashion, and with a roar, believing he had Stroud completely by surprise and cowered, he dove straight over the fire, singeing himself to get at Stroud. Stroud lifted the long, burning branch into Kerac's midsection as he came over, setting the beast aflame and jamming the fiery wood up and up, toppling Kerac within inches
of the silver nitrate drum, shaking the thing and causing it to slosh its contents over onto him. The liquid scalded Kerac but not enough to do serious harm. It must penetrate deeper to be effective. Kerac beat out the fire at his breast.
Werewolf's Grief (Bloodscreams #2) Page 25