by Greg Howard
The stench of rotted intestines burned Cooper’s nasal passage. He stared down at his hands, momentarily oblivious to the chaos around him. He’d killed one and couldn’t believe how strong the instincts where, how precise the execution. And how good it felt. No images of Trevor had clouded his laser focus. He hadn’t hesitated. And he was ready to kill again. He jumped to his feet and spun around. Randy stood staring at him, eyes wide, and mouth agape, no doubt wondering who was protecting whom.
Odessa rebuffed a charging changeling with her invisible force-field punch and yelled over to them. “There’s too many of them! Get out of here!”
She stared at Cooper, as wide-eyed as Randy. Apparently she had witnessed his first kill as well. A cluster of creatures focused their attention on the two Jericho soldiers. Randy and Cooper were momentarily in the clear.
“Get back up top. Back to the sunlight!” Odessa shouted while circling an agitated and severely decomposed monster. She waved Cooper and Randy off. “We’ll draw them away. Go!”
Odessa and Rafe put down changeling after changeling. Rafe sailed over the creatures like gravity was a matter of choice and not scientific fact, and drove his dagger down into the crown of one’s head, setting off another grisly explosion of flesh. Odessa somersaulted through the air, landing on the shoulders of a heavy-set creature and plunged her dagger deep into its chest. But the monsters kept coming. A dozen changelings blocked their path to the tunnel Cooper thought led back to the clock tower. Another gunshot rang out close to his ear. He ducked and looked over his shoulder. A dark-skinned creature dropped not two feet away from him. He hadn’t even seen it coming, but Randy had. They needed to move. Now.
Cooper scanned the perimeter of the space and noticed movement at a tunnel entrance on his right. He strained his eyes and focused into the black hole. The blurred green shadow of a hulking figure appeared just inside the opening. Though the broad face was hazy, the imposing shape and domineering posture was undeniable. It was Blue. Cooper swallowed a lump back down his throat. He hoped to God Eudora was right about Blue being his guardian. He was about to either lead them to safety or to their demise. They were completely out of options.
He grabbed Randy’s arm. “This way!”
They ducked and dodged several oncoming attacks as he led Randy in the direction of Blue’s tunnel. Every few steps, a changeling landed in his path and charged. Each time, Cooper knocked it out of the way, sending it flying in the air with the flick of his wrist, like swatting flies. He barely had time to think about it. Just reacted as his body commanded. Randy stumbled, trying to run while guarding them from behind, firing off rounds that Cooper prayed hit their intended targets.
They finally made it to the tunnel. Cooper stayed close to Randy, wanting an ally if he did come face to face with Blue. To his relief, the tunnel was empty. He looked back. Rafe and Odessa stood in the middle of the cavern, surrounded by the attacking horde and fighting for their lives. He didn’t want to leave them, but he had no choice. He had to get Randy out of there. Odessa spotted him through a sea of snapping jaws. She pulled Rafe toward a tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern. They plowed a path of carnage through the monsters to get there, drawing as many of the demons away from Cooper and Randy’s direction as possible, but not all of them.
Cooper had no time to wait and see if they made it or not. He and Randy ran down their new path of darkness, Randy guided by the beam of his flashlight, Cooper with a tenuous hold on his night vision. He shot a glance over his shoulder. Three changelings were in pursuit. Randy reached back and fired but missed.
Cooper made a left turn. He wasn’t sure why. It just felt right. He didn’t have any idea where they were headed; he just hoped they could find a place to emerge from this hellhole and into the safety of sunlight. His vision faltered again, as if his internal batteries were low, and then it went completely dark. After a few seconds of running blind, he smashed head on into a wall of hard clay. Randy careened into him, and they both tumbled to the ground. The flashlight rolled out of Randy’s hand and flickered off, abandoning them in an abyss of darkness.
Cooper quickly righted himself and leaned against the wall, heaving desperately for air. They were in total and complete darkness. He couldn’t even distinguish the outline of Randy’s body, and the shrieking in the distance told him the creatures couldn’t be far behind. He willed his night vision to return, and it denied him once again.
Randy pressed his shoulder up against Cooper, and the heat of his body calmed Cooper’s breathing. “I think we lost them.”
Cooper leaned forward and ran hands over the ground searching blindly for the flashlight. “Not likely.” He kept his voice to a whisper and finally gave up his search. “I can’t see a damn thing. This night vision is—”
Randy touched his face, interrupting his train of thought. The rough skin of his palm scraped Cooper’s cheek and sent a rush of electricity over his body. Worse timing for this could not exist, but Cooper couldn’t stop himself from wanting to absorb the moment. Randy found Cooper’s mouth and pressed a finger over his lips. It wasn’t an affectionate caress in the dark. Of course it wasn’t. It was a silent warning to shut the fuck up.
Labored wheezing sounded a few feet away in the darkness, and a rancid stench sizzled the hair of Cooper’s nostrils. He closed his mouth for fear he might gag. He slid his hand over the surface of the ground again, hoping to find the flashlight. After a few unfruitful seconds, he finally made contact with cold, hard metal. He coiled his fingers around the cylinder and lifted it off the ground. It flickered to life, the beam shooting out in front of them and exposing the misshapen forms of two approaching changelings.
A female crawled on hands and knees toward Randy. She snarled at him, snapping impossibly long fangs in the air. Clumps of long matted hair sprang randomly out of her bashed-in skull. She threw her head back. Her mouth stretched open wide, well beyond what her human form would ever have been able to do. She unhinged her jaws with spine-tingling snaps and pops, and her jagged fangs extended even more. Before she could alert the rest of her herd, Randy filled her mouth with the heel of his boot, knocking her back several feet. She crashed into the wall opposite them and fell still on the ground.
Standing ten feet away from Cooper, the second changeling reared its head back and howled. Randy reached for his gun, and Cooper aimed the beam on the creature’s bulbous eyes, blinding it with a flood of light. Two shots rang out. The changeling lunged forward. Jumping to his feet, Cooper dropped the flashlight and stretched his hands out at the charging monster. A rush of hot energy discharged from his fingertips, ejecting a softball-shaped flame from each hand. The fire orbs landed squarely in the center of the changeling’s chest, igniting into an explosion of burning flesh and ear-piercing shrieks.
Cooper stumbled back in shock. He dropped to the ground and scrambled away from the flailing ball of fire. It collapsed in on itself a few feet away, the fire dissipating, as there was less and less flesh and bone to feed on.
Randy grabbed the flashlight, the shaky beam illuminating eyes wide as golf balls. “Holy shit. Red. I didn’t know you could do that.”
Cooper crawled over to him, shocked and a little impressed with himself. “Neither did I.”
They sat side by side in silence, catching their breath and basking in the bliss of momentary safety. Randy lifted his arm and draped it loosely over Cooper’s shoulders. Cooper knew better than to read too much into the casual, friendly gesture, but he soaked up the physical contact all the same. He remained perfectly still, knowing any sudden move would likely end with Randy shifting away from him. He knew it was only a fantasy, but he wanted to stay like that forever—tucked safely in the arms of the only man he wanted to comfort him that way. The only man who could wear down his defenses with a wink and a smile. For once, he loosened the tight reins of control and allowed himself to be protected. Cared for. Even though he knew it was all in his head, in that moment, it felt real. And he savored it, even wi
th the corpses of two flesh-eating monsters a few feet away.
Randy turned to him. “You ready to find a way out of this hellhole, Red?”
Cooper wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and looked back at him, their faces only inches apart. “I think we circled back at one point. Best I can tell, we shouldn’t be too far away from the clock tower.”
Randy stared into his eyes, and Cooper’s breath caught in his throat. He held it there, afraid to move or breathe.
Randy peered over Cooper’s right shoulder and squinted. “What the hell is that?”
Chapter Thirty-One
Randy grabbed the flashlight from Cooper’s hand and scrambled to his feet. Cooper jumped up and followed him down the tunnel toward faint illumination forty feet away. Dim light trickled down from somewhere above, projecting a square outline on the ground. A way out. Cooper had no idea where it led, but almost anywhere was better than where they were.
Standing directly under what looked to be another trapdoor, Randy bent over and laced his fingers together, creating a makeshift step. “Come on. I’ll hoist you up.”
Cooper hesitated. He looked up and then back at Randy. “You sure you can hold me?”
Randy cocked his head and raised an eyebrow, like his manhood had just been called into question. “Cooper, I’ve lifted you up into trees since you were six years old. I know I’m a lot older and more decrepit now, but I think I can still manage.”
Cooper ran his fingers through his hair and sized Randy up, comparing their height and weight. The guy had nearly four inches on him and at least ten to twenty more pounds of solid muscle.
“Maybe I should help you up first. I think I would have a better chance at pushing you up, than I would pulling you up.”
Randy stood up straight and planted his hands on his hips. “You sure?”
Cooper leaned down and entwined his fingers. “Positive.”
Randy shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He placed his right foot into the handmade step and gripped the crown of Cooper’s head, pushing himself up.
Straining under the weight, Cooper managed to ease him up a few inches.
“Almost there,” Randy said, reaching up. “A little more.”
Every muscle in Cooper’s body protested. “Jesus! What have they been feeding you around here?”
“Shut up and lift, Red.” Randy pressed his open palms against the trapdoor. “The son of a bitch is stuck or sealed or something.”
Cooper locked his muscles in place and straightened out his spine, maximizing each of his six feet of height. Fatigue set in quickly, and sweat stung his eyes. He cursed himself under his breath for going easy at the gym. Too much time spent studying physiques other than his own.
Randy beat against the door with his fist and then looked down at Cooper. “Is there anything you can do to get it open? You know, that hocus-pocus shit of yours or something? Christ almighty. I can’t believe I’m saying this.”
Cooper wasn’t sure he was capable of any hocus-pocus shit at the moment. However, a chilling moan from somewhere down the tunnel behind him gave him the needed motivation to try.
Without acknowledging the oncoming intruder, Randy pounded the wood with a heightened sense of urgency. “Goddammit!”
Cooper fought to keep his arms locked into place and focused on the trapdoor above. He took a deep breath, his leg muscles twitching and buckling under Randy’s weight. A spark ignited immediately in the pit of his stomach, like the strike of a match. The prickle in his palms returned and spread down to his fingertips, lightening his load a little. He willed the trapdoor to open, and it did—in a small explosion of splintered wood.
Randy flinched and covered his eyes with his forearm, causing Cooper to nearly lose his balance. After a quick, appreciative glance down at Cooper, he reached up and grabbed onto the ledge, pulling himself up through the opening with relative ease. An ear-splitting shriek sounded right behind Cooper. He spun around. The female changeling stumbled toward him. Cooper made a quick mental note. Boot-to-mouth. Not entirely effective. It reached out for him with twisted claw-fingers, snapping its dislocated jaw.
Randy reached down to him with an outstretched arm. “Jump up. Now!”
Cooper did as he was told and caught hold of Randy’s firm grip. He peered over his shoulder. The female was only a couple feet away. Her crooked fangs dripped with brown saliva. She swiped at his dangling legs. He kicked, catching her jaw, and ascended into the air with a powerful yank. He hooked his elbows over the ledge as Randy grabbed the waist of his pants and pulled him the rest of the way to safety. Scrambling to their feet, they both looked down into the tunnel. The female hissed at them before she dug her claws into the dirt wall and climbed.
Cooper scanned the room and quickly spotted a massive cedar wardrobe against a nearby wall. Randy was on it before Cooper could communicate to him. They each took a side. Edged it away from the wall one corner at a time. It was heavy as hell, but with their combined strength, they finally managed to tip it over. The impact of the solid piece of furniture hitting the concrete floor echoed through the room, covering the trapdoor.
Cooper dropped to his knees, his heart pounding away in his chest. Minimal streaks of sunlight from two small windows close to the ceiling broke through the shadows of the cluttered and dusty room. He didn’t know where they were. All he knew was they were safe—at least for the moment.
“I hope Rafe and Odessa made it out.”
“They looked like they could take care of themselves down there.” Randy squatted beside him, wiping sweat from his brow with his forearm. Dirt smudged his face, his usually pristine uniform soiled and ripped in several places. It was the most disheveled Cooper had seen him since they were kids.
Cooper looked around the room through a thin cloud of suspended dust. Racks of colorful costumes lined the walls. Shelves housing archaic projection equipment stood in the center of the room. Movie posters dating back as far as On the Waterfront sat in stacks on the floor.
A large metal film canister sat on the floor beside him and he touched it. “I think we’re in the basement of the Strand Theater.” He glanced up at the small rectangular windows near the ceiling. Though he couldn’t gauge the exact time of day, the dim sunlight told him they needed to get back to the safety of Phipps House soon.
Randy stood and offered his hand. The exertion of his power had left Cooper physically drained, so he accepted the assistance getting to his feet. They stood face to face, their proximity much closer than Cooper had intended. He expected Randy to quickly release his hand and step back, but he didn’t.
He looked into Cooper’s eyes, then reached up and cradled his face in his hands. Oxygen stalled in Cooper’s lungs. He couldn’t move. Nor did he want to. Randy’s lips parted, like he was about to say something. Something that would, no doubt, steal this moment away from Cooper forever. Something that would once again wring his heart out like a dishrag. But Randy didn’t say anything. He closed the gap between their faces, planting his moist, hungry lips on Cooper’s.
A shudder ran the length of Cooper’s spine. A toxic mix of shock, relief, and pure pleasure paralyzed him. The kiss was hard and rough, laced with an urgent passion that Cooper had never experienced. Without hesitation, he welcomed Randy’s thick, probing tongue with equal hunger, his skin tingling all over. He’d fantasized about that moment all his life, and it was nothing like he’d ever imagined. It was unpolished. Clunky. And perfect.
Slipping his arms around Randy’s waist, Cooper pulled him closer. He wanted to feel the heat of that hard body against his, and he stiffened instantly when Randy’s thickening crotch pressed against him. He let his hand fall down Randy’s back and rest on the cleft of his muscled ass. A mistake. Because as suddenly as the kiss had started, it stopped.
Randy pulled back. Stared at Cooper with moist red lips, his eyes glassy and unreadable. He put hands on Cooper’s shoulders and held him at arm’s length. Cooper’s heart sank, and he dropped
his hands to his side. Shit. Here it comes. Another cut and run. And damn if he didn’t deserve it for letting his defenses down so easily. How could he be so weak?
As Randy opened his mouth, Cooper lifted a hand to halt his words. “No need to say anything. It’s okay. Heat of the moment. All this pent-up anxiety, that’s all. I get it. No harm, no foul.”
Randy’s grip on Cooper’s shoulders tightened. “No, asshole. That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier, only you wouldn’t give me a chance. Before all the exploding skulls, disembowelments, and fireballs shooting out of your ass. That’s what I wanted to say to you.” He paused and shrugged. “Well, that, but with words.”
Slack-jawed and speechless, Cooper stared at Randy and let the words sink in, analyzing them internally for any signs of a gotcha! moment lurking just around the corner. He detected nothing other than complete sincerity.
He eased his hands back onto Randy’s hips and exhaled for what felt like the first time in his life. “Wow. Actually, I… kind of love the way you finally said it.” He put a hand on Randy’s thick bicep. “And just for the record, the fireballs shot out of my fingers, not my ass.”
Randy’s mouth slowly curled into a smile. They chuckled and rested their foreheads against each other. Cooper took a deep breath of Randy’s cologne into his lungs and allowed himself to let his guard down and relax a second. It felt good. He felt safe. For a moment, he actually thought everything was going to be okay. The moment was brief, interrupted by the chilling scrape of claws against the bottom of the overturned wardrobe.
Chapter Thirty-Two
With a sudden, hammering blow, the wardrobe rose three feet into the air and landed just to the right of the trap door. A twisted hand emerged, clamping its claw like fingers onto the floor. A spasm of panic seized Cooper’s muscles. He scanned the room and immediately found cause for hope. A staircase. At the opposite end of the basement. He pushed Randy into the middle of the room where there was more sunlight and pointed. “The stairs. And stay in the light!”