by Stead, Nick
The hunger was becoming too much. I tried to focus on the unpleasant chemical odours instead, to keep my mind off my stomach. Had the smell always been this strong or had they just been cleaning? I tried to find any hint of blood on the air and failed. Was this really the path to freedom, or where we heading to our deaths? All traces of our mortal remains might be about to get bleached from the face of the Earth. There was only one way for us to find out.
We reached the top of the stairs and crept along the corridor, passing a few rooms on either side. They all contained beds but were otherwise empty. I supposed it made sense that the Slayers would need a force at hand in case any of us did escape. And if this place was being run without the blessing of the faction at large, they’d need a select group who could be trusted with their secrets. That probably meant keeping the recruits on site as much as possible, hence the sleeping quarters.
I glanced at Zee. The grim set to his features indicated he’d probably come to the same conclusions I had, while behind us, Hannah’s heart thundered at an unhealthy pace. That surprised me. Her ignorance should have kept her free from the same sinister train of thought our minds had wandered down, but I guessed facing the unknown was just as terrifying. Maybe she was even picking up on our unease.
A door slammed at the end of the corridor. Our prey? There was no telling what the three of them had been up to in the storage room, but I didn’t like the fact they’d fled to whatever waited at the far end of the building. Could it be another attempt to lead us into a larger group?
Again I looked to Zee. Part of me would have been all too happy to face a room full of Slayers, and decorate the walls in their blood. But part of me was well aware that I’d been lucky to escape similar encounters in the past. And eventually my luck would run out.
Zee kept his eyes ahead but his hand went to the hilt at his hip. His lip curled and there was another flash of fangs.
The smell of food grew stronger as we neared the door at the end. A glass panel gave a glimpse of chairs and tables, but I didn’t need it to figure out this was the canteen. There was no sign of any Slayers. They were in there though – I could practically feel their tension as they waited for us to enter.
There was a second door to the right. This one also had a window built into it, smaller than the one in the canteen door and much more secure. I peered through to find another staircase, again leading upwards. But the door was locked. It looked like my suspicions had been right. The Slayers had set things up so they’d have the advantage of numbers when we faced them. And it was a fair advantage – I could sense over a dozen of them, all carrying guns.
Zee was still focused on the canteen. He’d barely even glanced when I’d tried the door to the stairs, his grip tightening on his blade.
“So what now?” I whispered. “Do we fight?”
Zee closed his eyes and breathed in their scents. There was a glint when his eyelids opened again. “I’ve faced worse odds.”
I growled my approval and started forward. Zee’s hand came down on my shoulder a second later.
“Wait.”
Frustration rumbled through my throat. “I thought we were going in?”
Zee closed his eyes and took another deep breath, turning his head away from the temptation of prey. “It would be a mistake to give them what they want.”
“Well what option do we have? I’m not going back down into the dungeon,” I growled. “At least there’s a chance at getting out up here, even if there’s more Slayers to fight through at the top of those stairs. And these enemies are human so we have a chance to feed on any we kill, which is more than can be said for the creatures they’ve pitted us against down there.”
A decisive look swept across his features. “We try to break through to the stairway then. Either the Slayers will wait in that room, confident they’ve reinforced the exit well enough to withstand our combined power, or they will come pouring out to face us. If luck is on our side, it will be the latter, and we can use the narrowness of the corridor against them as we did with the ghouls. I would rather that than walk into their trap.”
“You don’t think we’ll succeed in breaking down the door?”
“I do not think it will be that easy, no. The best we can hope for is giving our enemies doubts about whether it will hold, and getting them to panic. That way we stand a chance of defeating them and afterwards we can search the bodies for a key. Perhaps then we will find a way out of this accursed place.”
“What about your powers? Can’t you use them to break through, or pick the lock?”
“My telekinesis has never been refined enough to perform something so delicate as manipulating the inner workings of a lock – it’s always been more in the way of brute force; perfect for destroying things but a drain on my reserves. It’s something to be used sparingly. We stand as much chance breaking through with the combined strength of our physical bodies as I would with my mind, and the physical effort will be much less tiring.”
“Okay, on three?”
He nodded and we backed into the opposite wall, giving ourselves as much of a run up as possible. The waiting humans could be heard shifting and growing restless as we prepared to charge. Then a man’s voice carried loud and clear, full of unease.
“Why aren’t they coming in?”
One of the others shushed him, just as Zee began counting. I ignored them and concentrated on moving in unison with the vampire. He got to three and we threw ourselves forward.
I’d never been good at getting anything in perfect unison as a human, even with a countdown. But Zee must have been accounting for our difference in speeds. He was a couple of seconds behind me and his timing worked out perfectly. We crashed into the door as one and my body ached with the impact. The metal didn’t even bend.
At first it seemed it would hold fast just as we’d predicted, but on the third attempt cracks started to appear in the small glass pane, and there was a visible dent as we backed off.
The same man’s voice sounded again.
“Oh my God, are they trying to escape? This isn’t what was supposed to happen. He said we’d be in no danger. He said they’d be starving and unable to resist the temptation of coming in here for us!”
“Would you shut up?” another man answered him. “They can hear everything, you idiot.”
“I’m not dying here, not like this,” the first man babbled. “I don’t care what he’ll do to us if it doesn’t work out how he wanted. I’m not dying for some stupid game.”
“You’ll do as you’re told if you want the money we were promised.”
“It’s not worth it, I’m not dying just for the sake of giving the monsters a bit of extra torment.”
“And what else are you going to do?” the second man sneered. “We’re trapped in here with them. You can hide and hope they pass you by, but if they don’t kill you then our boss most certainly will, and he’ll take his time about it. So either grow a pair and help us fight those monsters, or get out of our way and face the consequences.”
I traded a glance with Zee. We’d paused to listen, but the conversation only gave us more questions. At least they’d confirmed my theory that we’d been brought into some kind of real life version of a game.
“Think you can get some answers out of them if we place one under your spell?” I asked him.
“There’s no time. Even if we could kill all but one, whoever is running this show will soon come to set things back down the course we’re being steered on. They may well be watching us right now. Who knows how many seeing devices they have hidden about this place? We have but one advantage – it sounds like their leader wants to keep us alive for now, or these men wouldn’t be worrying about things not going how he wants. I don’t think he means for us to die in this trap they’ve set. I think they want to take us alive again and move us to another part of the dungeon.”
“Keep on at the door then?”
“It’s probably our best option.”
We
were about to charge again when Hannah spoke up, her eyes wide and fixed on the canteen door. “Here they come.”
“Damn it!” I snarled.
Zee flashed me a fierce grin. “I thought you wanted a fight?”
“Yeah, but it was looking like we might actually manage to break through. If they could have just given us a couple more tries!”
“We might yet. You keep them busy. I’ll keep trying the door.”
“That suits me.”
I turned to face the canteen, feeling a stab of savage excitement. The door opened and those nearest the entrance rushed through, even the man who’d been insistent he wouldn’t die for his leader’s twisted cause. At least, I assumed it was him from the way his heart pounded faster than the others, and the wild look in his eyes. But he was reluctant to charge completely into the fray. He stayed behind his allies, waiting for his moment to strike whilst putting himself at the least risk. I gave him a look of contempt. Coward.
The door didn’t swing shut behind them, and those who’d been towards the back came to aid their allies in the corridor. It was just wide enough for four of them to stand shoulder to shoulder, though the cowardly man kept back, even after a space opened up in the front line.
My rage answered the human threat with a bestial roar. I fell on the first man to come within range and sank my fangs into his throat, ripping it out in a spray of bloody ecstasy. The fluid felt wonderfully hot after the iciness of the dead I’d torn into, and the taste of it was divine. My belly rumbled its demands for more. I ignored it and rose from my dying victim to take another.
Pain seared through me as a knife slashed across my side. Blood welled up and filled the grisly trench gouged into my flesh, spilling over the sides and dripping to the floor. But it was only a flesh wound. I realised they were being careful not to deliver any fatal blows. They just needed to cause enough blood loss to weaken us, then they’d be able to take us alive. That explained why they hadn’t started shooting.
It was possible they were being careful not to hit Hannah as well, if she was important to the game somehow. She had the sense to retreat back down the corridor though, and she was soon forgotten as the Slayers fought for their lives, and I fought for our freedom.
I lunged at a third human and caught hold of the arm he instinctively raised, biting clean through flesh and bone in revenge for the amputation they’d forced me to perform earlier. But there would be no miraculous reattachment of the limb for my victim. The severed arm dropped to the floor with a meaty thud. There it lay in a spreading pool of blood, muscles twitching as if they were still struggling to obey his brain’s commands. The man screamed in agony as more blood spurted from his stump, falling back in shock and clutching it with his remaining hand.
Three more men rushed forward. One of these did fire, obviously trusting his aim was good enough to land a body shot without accidentally hitting my heart. That would have been ironic after so many had tried to kill me and missed their mark, but I supposed they would have had to be especially bad shots to land a killing blow without meaning to. As it was, he merely clipped my left arm. More stinging pain blazed in the bullet’s wake.
I roared with renewed anger and turned to face these new opponents, feeling another blade slide between my ribs. I retaliated with a vicious swipe at his face, raking my claws across the skin which split and puckered round the gashes I created, blood running down and leaking into the man’s eyes. While he blindly blundered around I caught the arm of another Slayer. His knife fell from his hand as I dragged him to his doom, biting down on his skull with crushing force. Bone crunched and his limp body fell to the pool of blood and gore at our feet.
My third adversary managed to stab me in the lower back. Nerves throbbed with a greater urgency and I guessed he’d punctured something important. Blood poured from the wound.
I turned and grabbed him by the throat, squeezing with such strength that his spine shattered, killing him instantly. His corpse slid down to join the others.
A wave of dizziness crashed over me, and I was also forced to my knees. The fight seemed to fade into another reality and my limbs began to shake. I needed to heal or I was going to pass out.
I let the transformation take hold, allowing my body to shift to full wolf. Fresh pain stabbed through flesh and bone as my form altered, but the wounds began to close up and the discomfort faded into blissful nothingness. Hunger took its place. It ravaged my mind with a new savagery, and all else was forgotten.
I ripped into the nearest carcass, gulping down chunks of flesh until it lost all semblance of a once living body. My mind cleared as my hunger was satisfied, and I felt new strength ripple through me as I rose from my meal.
But the Slayers hadn’t simply stood back and waited for me to heal and replenish my energy – while I’d been preoccupied they’d crept around to attack Zee; all but the coward who continued to stay back, watching from the safety of the canteen now. They’d probably realised the vampire was close to breaking down the door, the thick sheet of metal dented out of shape and a gap opened up at either side. If I hadn’t given the Slayers the opportunity to attack, he might have had chance to finish forcing his way through. But as it was, he had to abandon it and defend himself, his blade a blur which the humans had no hope of following.
One by one he cut them down, though I could tell he really wanted to sink his fangs into their veins and drink his fill. That temptation proved too much for him as he faced the last of his attackers. He lost himself in the hunger just as I had, and it was then the cowardly Slayer chose his moment to strike.
The man raised his gun and took aim at Zee’s head. I tried to shout a warning, but with my vocal cords fully lupine I was limited to the wolven tongue. And Zee either didn’t speak it, or he was too lost in the ecstasy of the fresh blood to take notice. He didn’t even glance my way.
The Slayer did and his eyes widened, but his aim stayed on Zee. I cursed and sprang forward, pushing my body to its limits. Could I reach him before he squeezed the trigger and ended Zee’s life? It wasn’t that far to run but even with all my supernatural speed, I still wasn’t faster than a speeding bullet. I had to try though; friends were hard to come by in this cursed life I’d been given, and I dared to hope I would be able to count Zee as a friend, even after we escaped from the Slayers’ game. Plus some practical part of my brain was aware I still stood more chance at escaping with his help, especially if we would have to fight our way through the rest of the base. I wasn’t about to just stand by and let the Slayer kill him.
If the human had hesitated for just a few moments more, I would have been on him. But the sound of his gunshot rang out with a finality to it that seemed to signal to Death himself, the bullet tearing through flesh and shattering bone with deadly efficiency. New pain exploded through my back, turning my hind legs to useless lumps of meat and sending me crashing to the floor with a yelp. Too late, I realised the man might have been a coward, but he was no idiot – his plan had been to lure us into the canteen all along, into whatever trap they’d set up in there. And there was no going back for me then, my momentum carrying me across the floor and right into the room, ripping layers of skin from my body as I went.
Finally I came to a stop. I couldn’t feel anything beyond where my spine had shattered and if the paralysis had been permanent, it would probably have brought a sense of panic. But after the transformation had saved my severed arm, I knew it would be well within its power to restore my spinal column and the nerves needed to walk again. Until then I was out of the fight, helpless and at the Slayer’s mercy.
I could hear Zee running to my aid. Silently I cursed my inability to communicate in full wolf form. As happy as I was that he’d chosen to help me instead of leaving me to my fate while he escaped, it might have been better if he’d fled. Maybe he’d still have ended up back in the dungeon with me, or maybe, just maybe, he’d have made it out of the base. Then he could have gone for help. He could have gone to Ulfarr. The Elder probab
ly wouldn’t have been in any hurry to free me, but if there was a chance Lady Sarah had been taken alive, and possibly even other vampires, he might have led a force to break us out. It wasn’t to be though. Zee’s loyalty caused him to forget the folly of running into the very room we’d been trying to avoid, and I could only watch as the human raised his gun once more.
The coward didn’t fire at the vampire’s head this time either, instead aiming at the ceiling. A net large enough to capture an entire pack of undead crashed down, trapping us both.
I had to hand it to the Slayers. The sheer size of the net almost guaranteed success – any smaller and the mortals would have had to get their timing just right, but the coward shot the catch the instant he saw Zee move, and Zee had run right into the net’s path.
At first the net didn’t seem to be made from anything special. The material might have been too tough for a mortal creature to tear its way through, but it shouldn’t have been enough to hold us. I expected Zee to break his way out of it and kill the human just out of reach of my broken body, but the seconds dragged by and he was still on the ground. Something was wrong, and I was powerless to help him.
Steam rose off Zee’s writhing form as he screamed in agony. The net began to sink into his skin, as though the tissue had turned to molten wax. The stench of it sloughing off him would have been enough to make a human gag, blisters forming around the material where skin and fat melted away, like the net had been coated in acid. And yet, I couldn’t feel any indication that it was eating through my flesh. It could only be one thing: holy water.
I snarled at the human and thrashed my head and forelegs in an attempt to rip through the net and help Zee somehow, yet without my back legs it was useless. A section of the material ripped between my jaws but that was about all I could do – I was in no shape to pull the entire thing off my friend, and I was struggling just to drag my own damaged flesh through the hole. There was nothing for it but to change back to human form. I was helpless anyway, and if I could somehow heal before the Slayer made his next move we might still stand a chance at escaping. So I let the transformation take hold again, even though I knew it was probably useless. It’s not like I really expected the Slayer to just stand back and let me heal when he had us both at his mercy. And he proved me right, switching the gun he’d been using for something bigger.