by Greg Howard
Cooper glanced over his shoulder as they crossed the room. The female changeling dug her claws into the concrete floor and pulled herself out of the hole. She crouched like some giant mutant spider, her stomach and face low to the ground with elbows and knees extended above her back. A broken bone protruded through the ripped flesh on its leg and oozed with thick brown blood. The creature advanced but made the mistake of crossing a stream of sunlight in its path. With a piercing wail, it shrank into the shadows by the wall.
Randy spun around and drew his gun. Pointed it at the creature and fired. Only the hollow click of an empty chamber sounded. “Fuck me!”
The female inched along the wall, hissing at them but staying clear of the streams of light separating them. Cooper kept an eye on the creature’s position as they hurried over to the stairs. Another mangled arm rose out of the hole in the floor. Then another. Two new changelings crawled over one other, pulling themselves up into the room. The taller one had dark skin dangling from its face in crudely torn strips. The shorter, stocky one’s tattoo-riddled skin hung loosely from its bones, making for a splotchy patchwork of ghoulish art. With eyes black and menacing, the creatures widened their dislocated jaws, releasing ear-splitting shrieks. A reciprocal chorus of war cries sounded from the tunnel below. More of them would soon emerge.
At the base of the stairs, Cooper pulled on Randy’s arm. “We have to get outside.”
He took the stairs two at a time and burst through the door at the top with Randy right on his heels. Sprinting around the thirty-foot-high projection screen, they skidded to a stop in the center of the empty stage to get their bearings. A single fluorescent light above them provided the only illumination in the theater other than the red glowing exit signs mounted along the wall in the back of the auditorium.
Randy tugged on Cooper’s arm. “Come on. There’s got to be a stage door somewhere closer.”
They turned and froze. The three changelings from the basement rushed onto the stage, blocking their path. The creatures spread out and circled them like a pack of wild animals stalking their next meal. Cooper and Randy exchanged glances, but neither offered a plan.
A crackled voice sounded from behind the screen. “Who’s there? Theater’s closed.” A lanky older man shuffled out onto the stage wearing coveralls and a tool belt. “How the hell did you people…” The man froze when he saw the changelings. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”
Cooper waved him off. “Get out of here!”
The tall changeling was on the old man before he could move an inch. It snatched the back of his head with its claws, jerking the skull back in a ninety-degree angle. The sound of snapping bones and ripping flesh made Cooper’s stomach lurch. He edged forward. Randy grabbed his sleeve and held him back. The old man’s eyes bulged from their sockets as the creature sank its fangs into his neck and gnawed right through to the spine in seconds. A bone-chilling crack echoed across the stage and a violent spray of blood spewed out of the man’s neck as the changeling chewed his head completely off his body. The headless corpse crumpled to the floor. The changeling held the decapitated head at its side like a bloodied bowling ball, two fingers thrust inside the eye sockets and one inside a hole where the man’s nose used to be.
Randy sidled up to Cooper. They stood shoulder to shoulder, facing down their attackers, the two sides each waiting for the other to flinch as new screeches and wails echoed through the basement door. They didn’t have much time. The female was the first to charge.
Cooper jumped in front of Randy, shielding him from the attack. The creature was on him before he could even raise his tingling hands. He expected to feel her claws ripping into him at any second. He didn’t. Instead, the creature hesitated and stared at him with the slight cock of her head. She swung a bony but powerful arm at him, knocking him to the floor with surprising force. He landed hard on his back and lay there stunned, gasping for air and ears ringing from the blow.
The changeling grabbed Randy’s shoulders. She widened her jaws and yanked him toward her. Breaking the monster’s grip with a quick spin of his body, Randy rammed his fist into the center of her face. The blow broke straight through bone and rotting flesh, his fist disappearing deep inside the decaying skull with the sound of ice being crushed in a blender.
Randy stared wide-eyed at his hand lodged inside the skull, then jerked it back in disgust. It was stuck. “Jesus H. Christ!”
Cooper scrambled to his feet and kicked the female in the stomach, dislodging Randy’s hand. The monster stumbled backward toward the projection screen with a fist-sized hole in her face. The tall changeling dropped the dead janitor’s bowling ball head on the floor. It landed in messy splat and rolled off the front of the stage. The creature cocked its head and moved toward them slowly, its fangs drenched in the old man’s blood.
Randy’s whisper was hot on Cooper’s ear. “We have to make a run for the stage door.”
Cooper shook his head and stared the monster down. Running had gotten them nowhere, and he wanted to kill again. Needed to kill again, or the power would boil over inside him and explode. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. Summoning all of the erratic energy pinging around inside him, he commanded it to consume him. The power responded instantly, as if it had been waiting for his call. He opened his eyes and looked up. The female was back on her feet and heading right for them.
Randy shook him by the arm. “Cooper, what the hell are you doing? Run!”
Cooper ignored him, turning his palms forward and bracing for the impact. The virulent force rushed up from his core, a hot electrical current running down his veins. Golden orbs of fire formed on his palms and shot out of him with the jarring kick of a double-barreled shotgun. The female received the full brunt in the center of her chest. Somehow howling through the gaping hole in her face, she flew backward, exploding into flames as she slammed into the projection screen.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit,” Randy murmured behind him.
Cooper couldn’t agree more, but he had no time to survey his handiwork. The tall changeling was only a few feet away. Cooper aimed and released two newly formed fireballs at the monster and his squatty partner. The fireballs hit both targets dead-on, sending them to the same blazing end as the female demon. All three changelings burned into the giant screen. Their almost human-sounding cries echoed through the hollow theater, rattling off the walls and rolling over the tops of rows of empty red velvet seats. The stifling stench of burning flesh filled the room and settled in depths of Cooper’s lungs. He and Randy stood gawking at the grotesque display as if it were a surreal 3-D horror film. The screen quickly caught hold of the flames, the fire consuming it like it had been doused with gasoline.
Cooper grabbed Randy’s arm. “This whole place is going to go up. Let’s go.”
Randy moved a little too slowly for Cooper’s comfort. A high-pitched bell alarm sounded as Cooper guided him to the stage door, pushing through it and stumbling out into the alley. Once they were clear of the building, Cooper dropped to his knees and drew clean, icy air into his lungs, the chill of it stinging his insides as his momentary relief quickly dissipated. They’d made it out and were safe for the moment, but the Strand Theater was on fire and Odessa and Rafe were lost in the tunnels trying to protect him. He hadn’t even acted quickly enough to save the poor janitor inside.
On hands and knees beside him, Randy panted and coughed. “That zombie bitch didn’t kill you when she had the chance. She knocked you away and came after me.”
Cooper struggled to catch his breath and just nodded. He’d noticed the same odd behavior of the changeling and didn’t understand it either. Coughing smoky bile out of his lungs, he looked up as the final traces of sunlight slipped out of the sky.
Chapter Thirty-Three
A cacophonous choir of sirens echoed in the distance and dusk settled in around them, the combination coating the air with an ominous sense of doom. Cooper sat leaning against the building several feet away from the stage door. The sun
had set, and they were sitting ducks. They needed to get back to Phipps House, but he was so physically spent he could barely move a muscle.
Randy rested his hands on his hips. “Sounds like they’re sending everything Georgetown has with a siren attached. We need to get away from the building. You okay?”
Cooper rubbed his palms on his thighs, still working to steady the rhythm of his own breathing. He looked up at Randy and caught a glimmer of reproach staring back at him.
Randy kneeled in front of him. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again, Cooper Causey.”
Cooper shrugged his shoulders. “What? I saved our asses, didn’t’ I?”
“Don’t get cocky, Red. You could’ve gotten yourself killed in there. No offense, but that hocus-pocus shit of yours hasn’t been 100 percent reliable.”
Cooper touched Randy’s shoulder. “I knew what I was doing. Trust me. I can control it now. Well… mostly.”
Randy stared at Cooper, his eyes softening, and the creases in his face easing. He leaned in, and Cooper’s heart thumped hard against his chest cavity. Awkward and tentative, Randy tilted his head to the right before he stopped and then tilted it to the left instead, as if he really wanted to get it right this time and not rush it like before. Finally, he parted his lips, and they landed on Cooper’s. The scruff of his late-afternoon beard scraped against Cooper’s skin. He pushed his fingers into Cooper’s hair, lacing them through locks thick with sweat. When he pulled away, Cooper’s lips ached. He wanted more.
Randy stared down and him and cocked his head. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that?”
Cooper had to clear his throat before he could speak. “I’ll bet not as long as I have.”
“That’s a bet you’d lose, Red.”
Cooper studied his face—the burly, rough-around-the-edges interpretation of rare angelic beauty with pools of dark honey for eyes. The woodsy scent that followed Randy everywhere drifted into Cooper’s nose, expelling the lingering stench of smoke and burning changelings from his nostrils. A hundred questions swirled around in Cooper’s head, but he pushed them all away. But after years of wondering, he had to ask one question right then, while he still had the courage, the building burning behind him be damned.
He looked up into Randy’s eyes and took his hand. “That night on the beach after Kevin’s funeral. You wanted that too?”
Randy looked down and squeezed Cooper’s hand. “Like I’d never wanted anything so bad in my life. But the timing was all wrong. We had just buried your brother. You were shit-faced and a mess, if you remember. But mostly, I was just a fucking coward. Then before I knew it, you’d left for college and that was that.”
Cooper had to be sure, before he even considered the foreign possibility of surrendering his heart to another man. He pushed a little farther. “But you married your high school sweetheart—your first love.”
Randy’s gaze pierced right through the residual armor around Cooper’s heart. “No, Coop. Renee wasn’t my first love. You were.”
Cooper stared back at him, completely at a loss for words. His usually boundless knack for defensive barbs and sassy retorts had completely abandoned him.
Randy peered down the alley. “I’ve pushed these feelings so far down inside me for so long, it threw me for a loop when I saw you at Phipps House the other night. All those old memories and feelings came rushing back to the surface. I didn’t know how to deal with it.” Randy glanced down at the ground in front of Cooper. “I guess I didn’t handle it very well. I’m sorry.”
Cooper touched his cheek and scraped his thumb across the stubble. “It’s okay. I get it. Everything is fine now.”
Randy looked up and kissed Cooper gently on the forehead. “Well, not quite everything. I need to get to my car and check in. I’m sure they need me, and I lost my radio down in those godforsaken tunnels.”
“I’m fine,” Cooper said. “Go. I’ll be right behind you. Just need to catch my breath.”
Randy stood and nodded. He turned and sprinted down the alley, disappearing around the corner. Cooper sighed and looked back toward the theater. Blue-gray layers of smoke seeped out from under the stage door, the only visible sign of the fire raging inside. He needed to get farther away.
He pushed his back against the wall and edged his way up to his feet, but his legs wobbled under him. The exertion of his power had left him weaker than he realized. He lumbered down the alley, his muscles aching with every step. When he turned the corner onto Front Street, another fire alarm sounded in a nearby building. He walked a few steps up the sidewalk toward the entrance of the Strand, drawn by the need to see the damage he’d done to the beautiful old building.
Smoke billowed from the roof of the building, cloaking the already dusky sky over Front Street with a fresh blanket of unease. Flames danced over to the rooftops of adjoining buildings on either side of the theater. Businesses rumbled with activity, expelling their human contents into the middle of the street in various states of disarray and confusion. Patrons flocked out of coffee shops, cafes, and other businesses to see what the clamor was about. Cars emptied out of parking spaces in front of the theater. Store clerks and restaurants servers escorted customers out of their doors in as orderly a fashion as possible.
Exhausted, Cooper stopped walking and leaned against the front window of a flower shop. Randy stood wedged in the open door of his police cruiser across the street barking into the handset of a radio, the long-coiled cord stretched to its limit. After all that time lost in the maze of underground tunnels, they’d emerged a mere fifty yards away from where they started, thanks to Blue. Just as he was starting to relax, a fresh wave of chills rolled over Cooper’s body. The hair on the back of his neck sizzled and sprang to attention. He heard the disapproving clack of someone’s tongue behind him, and he turned around.
“Cooper, Cooper, Cooper,” Alexander said, his voice oozing with malice and mockery. “What rueful calamity have we caused now?” With his granite face frozen into a rigid mask of rancor, the Anakim took a fluid step toward him. Cooper squared his shoulders and straightened his spine. Though he might not be able to kill the immortal psychopath, surely he could do some serious damage. But too many innocent people were around. Alexander would have no problem sacrificing any or all of them.
“You’ve had quite the busy day meddling in my affairs—harassing my day soldier, slaughtering my children.” Alexander stared down the sidewalk toward the theater. “I will require your blood now more than ever to replenish my army and defeat the Jericho soldiers you have attracted.”
Cooper stared into the Anakim’s eyes and fought internally to keep his voice low and steady. “That’s never going to happen, you psychotic fuck. I’ve learned a few tricks since we last met that I’m just dying to try out on you.” Cooper forced himself to smirk.
The Anakim was on him before he could inhale another breath of charred air. Pressing his cold, hard body against Cooper, Alexander leaned down and hissed in his ear. “You have experienced firsthand what my children are capable of. Give me what I want, or I will release them on this pathetic excuse of a town and do the world a favor by wiping it off the fucking map.”
A fist-sized lump hardened in Cooper’s throat. He knew the threat was real.
Alexander leaned back and smiled wider. “Take your time making up your mind. I can see plenty of locals to amuse myself with while I wait.”
Three fire trucks screamed down Front Street and jerked to a stop in front of the Strand. Cooper glanced across the street and settled on Randy a moment too long.
“Ah, yes. I think I will start with that one. Excellent choice.” Alexander was suddenly in front of him, a salacious grin stretching across his face exposing sparkling fangs. “I cannot wait to taste him.”
A stew of rage bubbled over inside Cooper. Georgetown, he could sacrifice. Randy, he could not. He curled his fingers into fists at his side, the darkness pooling in his fingertips. “If you touch one hair on his head—”
Alexander shoved him so roughly against the flower shop window, the back of his head bounced off the glass. He felt Alexander’s icy fingers close around his throat. “You will what?” His jawline petrified, and his voice dropped to a near hiss. “I will have your blood, Divinum. If I have to kill every person you love, every Jericho solder that tries to protect you; if I have to reduce this town to ashes, you will give yourself to me.” Alexander’s voice increased in volume with every word, each syllable punctuated by the tightening grip around Cooper’s throat. “The Anakim will be legion again. We will be a race of kings as we once were. As we should be.”
Cooper struggled to breathe. He clawed at Alexander’s fingers to no avail. He thought he would pass out, but the Anakim released his grip and Cooper gasped for air. Alexander slid the tip of his index finger down Cooper’s neck, igniting a multitude of chills on his skin.
Blood rushed back into his cheeks and oxygen back into his lungs. “Don’t you mean a race of slaves? With you as their master and king?”
Alexander ignored the barb. He closed his eyes and leaned in so close their noses almost touched.
With eyelids fluttering, he breathed in Cooper’s scent and pressed his mouth to Cooper’s ear. “I will save them from extinction. Repopulate the race and deliver them from the cursed existence imposed by your ineffective god and his precious Divinum seed. The Anakim will rule this pathetic human world he tossed aside so long ago. That’s your god, Divinum. I would never forsake my people. I am their messiah.”
Cooper drew strength from the darkness churning in his core. But before he could focus its release, Alexander was behind him. He twisted one arm up Cooper’s back until he thought his shoulder would jump out of its socket, and then he spun Cooper around to face the clock tower and purred in his ear.