by Stead, Nick
The metal caved in around me. It was weak enough for me to punch a hole through now, with little more than fresh bruising to my knuckles. I wrapped my fingers around the edges of that hole and pulled the steel apart, widening it so I could step through, into the corridor. The air smelled even sweeter out here. I took another deep breath and savoured the smell of my prey, still thick in my nostrils. Then I set off in pursuit of my vengeance. The hunt was on.
I had just begun to prowl down the corridor when David’s voice crackled to life through speakers overhead, as if the alarm wasn’t enough to spur his men into action.
“The werewolf’s loose. Get every gun we have on him, now!”
My lips curled into a snarl. The bastard couldn’t even bring himself to say my name. I hoped my body could overcome the effects of the injection before I reached him, so I could rip him apart in my usual, brutal fashion. Those natural weapons I wanted were starting to form, my teeth slightly pointier than usual and my nails darkening and starting to lengthen into claws. But they still had a way to go.
Footsteps pounded across the PVC flooring from somewhere nearby, a group of Slayers rushing to obey David’s command. If they’d been smart enough they’d have waited to fight me in force, but as usual they were placing far too much faith in their guns and their ability to put a bullet through my heart or my brain. There were only a handful of them; far too few to douse the fires of my rage.
Roaring my defiance at my would-be killers, I charged before they even had time to aim and crashed into the weak humans, knocking them all to the ground. It was such an easy thing to kill or maim them. Ideally I would have liked to have taken my time with each victim, but I wasn’t as reckless as I once was. I knew such dark pleasures would have to wait for those I really wanted to make suffer.
Skulls caved in as I smashed them into the floor, creating gory halos of blood, bone and brain around the heads of my enemies. Bones snapped as I broke wrists and ripped off limbs, blood spurting across the walls and floors and showering my skin in its glorious warmth, which only empowered that darker side of me. Once the majority of them lay dead and dying, that left me free to take a little longer with the man unlucky enough to be the last.
Some part of me knew I didn’t have the luxury of drawing it out too long when the demon still held Amy and the others in its clutches. I settled for digging the sharpening claws of my right hand into the flesh of his forehead, tracing grisly lines across his skin until his face was marred by a series of red rivulets.
I took his eyes and continued downwards until my fingers hooked on the inside of his mouth. The human was tough and stopped screaming long enough to try and close his teeth around my filthy digits, each one soaked in the blood of his comrades. But he was no match for my supernatural strength. I dug my fingers under his tongue, pulling his lower jaw back down into a scream and forcing it further still.
Bone and tissue gave way to my lupine might, cracking and tearing with a meaty sound until the bone came away in my hand. Ripped tendons and ligaments were left hanging in its place like grisly threads. Then I snapped the lower section of his spine, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.
I left him to die alone and helpless, surrounded by the corpses of his allies. Blindly he tried to crawl away with broken hands, his tongue hanging loosely and trailing across the floor whenever he failed to lift his head. It licked across the pools of gore, his nose wrinkling with disgust. I guess he wasn’t enjoying the taste as much as I did.
None of their scents had been the ones I’d picked up in either the control room or the chamber with the tortured dog, but I soon found one I recognised. I followed it down another corridor and towards a room, listening to the sound of a rapid heartbeat coming from within. My face twisted into a dark smile. He was in there, and he was mine.
I forced my way in and heard a loud whimper. This man was unarmed, cowering beneath a table. It had a sheet across it which helped conceal his shaking form, but he couldn’t hide from my other senses and I would not be denied my kill. He was doomed and he knew it.
I grabbed a leg and pulled. The coward slid out from the illusion of cover the table had granted him with a scream. I snarled, taking a moment to enjoy the sight of him pissing himself beneath my burning gaze. The Reaper had to be near again. But first I needed to know where I might find the spellcaster responsible for summoning the demon. Then he would feel the full force of my fury.
“Mercy! Don’t kill me – I have a family,” he pleaded.
“So did Hannah but you seemed happy enough to sacrifice her,” I growled.
“Please, I’ll do anything.”
“The demon. Who summoned it here and whereabouts in this godforsaken place are they likely to be?”
“He calls himself Aeshma, after the demon from mythology. Likes to think he’s their master, you see.”
“Where can I find him?”
“That’s all I know, I swear!”
“Don’t make me ask again,” I snarled. My canines had almost fully grown into my lupine fangs now and my claws were becoming equally as impressive.
“Okay! Okay, I might know where he is. David gave him a room specifically for working his dark magic. That’s where he was when you entered the last chamber, so he could control his pet demon.”
“Show me.”
I didn’t give the man much option but to do as I bid him, forcing him to his feet and keeping a tight hold on the collar of his shirt so he couldn’t run. He stumbled forward as I pushed him onward, back out of the door and along the corridor. I didn’t worry about him misleading me, trusting his fear to steer me in the right direction for as long as he believed it might save him. It wouldn’t, of course. I had no intention of letting him live once he’d served his purpose, but he had to know that doing as I asked was his best bet.
“It’s just down here,” he said after a while, gesturing to the corridor we were about to enter.
More Slayers appeared from somewhere behind, opening fire with no regard for their ally’s life. I growled in frustration and turned to deal with them, using him as a shield. For his part, the man tried to appeal to the better nature of his fellow humans, but they clearly had no problem with sacrificing the lives of others for ‘the greater good’. It came as no surprise to me by then that they were every bit the monster as those of us they were so determined to wipe out, their hatred for my kind so great that they didn’t hesitate to shoot. I was seeing more and more evidence of that with every encounter. The man should have known he was doomed and saved his breath, but maybe he hadn’t truly understood what he’d signed up for.
Bullets thudded into his flesh until it was riddled with metal, blood gushing from numerous holes and his body going into a series of uncontrollable spasms. His pleas turned to gurgles.
Guns clicked empty and I tossed the dying man aside, his usefulness outlived. Then I charged while my enemies fumbled with their weapons, dispatching them in a similar fashion to the first group.
The last one lay dying and I rose from him to find another scent I recognised from the control room, drifting from further along the corridor. There was no way of knowing if it was the warlock I sought or not but it was coming from a room in the direction I’d been guided to. I also caught the perfumed scent of incense, strong and sickly to my sensitive nose. It was safe to bet I had the right room then. Whether the man I needed was the one inside or not remained to be seen.
There was nothing for it but to go in and find out, so I prowled over there and was surprised to find the door was unlocked, allowing me easier access to my prey than I’d been expecting. I was also surprised when the man inside stood boldly by his desk. He dared to meet my eyes as I stalked through the door, without a hint of fear.
Incense and various bones sat in a circle on the desk’s wooden surface, a bowl of blood at the centre. I could also see what looked to be an incantation scrawled on a scrap of paper, lying next to the ritualistic ring.
Fresh pain stabbed through me.
My body was still pressing for the transformation but the agony of it was made all the sharper by the fact it was going so slowly, coupled with the internal damage the demon had done. I faltered on my way over to the man and had to lean against the wall, waiting for the worst of it to subside. He watched me with disdain.
“Are you Aeshma?” I grunted.
“I might be. It depends what you want with me, beast.”
“I need you to dismiss the demon you summoned.”
Aeshma raised an eyebrow. “And why would I do that? My servants are far more powerful than one injured lycanthrope trapped in human form. You do not frighten me, wolf. They will crush you before you can lay a finger on me.”
I growled and forced my body onwards, staggering over to him with single-minded determination. Rage granted me the strength to press him against the wall, my face inches from his as I glared into his eyes. My ears had turned pointy by then and I imagined I looked like a demon myself.
“I will give you two choices. You can either perform the ritual to dismiss your pet demon and I will give you a quick, clean death. If you’re lucky, your soul will find the peace of eternal darkness or stay on the mortal plane, or even find its way to Heaven. Or I can send you down to the demons you’ve enslaved and you will know torments far worse than any I can bring you.”
“You wouldn’t know how to send me there,” he sneered.
“Maybe not, but I’m sure Selina will when she wakes and recovers enough to work her own witchcraft. Are you really willing to take that gamble? I don’t think those demons are going to be happy with you for making them your servants. And I wouldn’t count on your pet in the dungeon coming to save you. It already found a way to disobey your orders and let me through to the control room, so I could free it.”
Aeshma’s face paled. I was counting on him not knowing Selina might already be dead, and it looked like my threat had worked. “I need my tools.”
I let him go, keeping a close eye on him as he returned to his desk and began rearranging the circle of bones, dipping his fingers in the blood and splashing each of them. He also lit five candles placed on the points of a pentagram which had been carved into the wood, and an incense cone. When he started to chant the incantation I relaxed slightly, trusting I’d put enough fear in him to make certain he would do as I’d instructed. It seemed easier to let him dismiss the demon and finish killing the humans before going back for the others. Letting it run free for as long as it took to bring Selina to perform the ritual herself felt like an unnecessary risk, if she was even still alive to banish it herself. And I was confident I could clear the place of enemies without the demon’s help, now that the serum’s effects were slowly giving way to the moon’s power.
The bloodied bones started to rattle with the dark energy the warlock was channelling through them. Blood bubbled in the bowl in the centre, the candle flames quivering in the still air. I took that to be a good sign. But there was also the sound of more Slayers advancing towards the room and I cursed, realising we were about to be interrupted.
“Hurry!” I growled, not wanting to take my eyes from the spellcaster in case he found the confidence to try anything. I was warier of him than I was of the guns coming our way.
Aeshma didn’t break his chant but his lips moved faster as he sought to finish the spell and earn the quick death I’d promised him. The power of the ritual seemed to be growing, the bones shaking more violently and crimson fluid spitting from the bowl, splattering the desk red. It occurred to me the warlock could be working any spell at that point and I’d have no way of knowing until it was too late, but I didn’t know what would happen if I killed him before he’d finished; whether the dark magic would simply dissipate or whether it would explode or something. I daren’t test it, feeling it would be better to let him finish and just praying he was dismissing the demon as I’d told him to.
The Slayers had almost reached the room and the ritual still wasn’t done. I debated rushing out to meet them, but indecision made me hesitate for a moment too long, and another wave of pain racked my body, slowing me further. The next thing I knew, the humans were bursting through the door and their guns were pointing at me.
Aeshma stopped his chanting. I guessed he’d released the flow of dark energy he’d been channelling, as the bones became inanimate once more and the surface of the blood grew calm and still in its dish. He smirked and made to sidle away from me, giving his allies a clear shot. David was not among them, apparently too cowardly to come and kill me himself, and from the grim looks on the faces of his men, I didn’t think they were going to risk taking me alive. I was out of options so I did the only thing I could, forcing my aching flesh to move as swiftly as my lycanthropy allowed.
Bone snapped and the warlock’s body crumpled to the floor, head twisted at an unnatural angle. It was too quick for the humans to react, though their guns remained fixed on my head and my chest, and it was surely only a matter of moments before they opened fire. I just hoped Aeshma’s death would be enough of a distraction for me to somehow fight my way out.
“You fool,” one of the men gasped, a look of horror creeping over his face. “What have you done?”
CHAPTER TWENTY–EIGHT
Keeping Promises of Blood
Fresh power surged through the room. The candle flames bowed before it and winked out, light succumbing to darkness. Bones scattered, tumbling over the edge of the desk and clattering across the floor. And the bowl in the centre flipped over, splashing blood across the wooden surface and down onto the PVC.
The Slayers fell to their knees with screams of agony, their bodies breaking before my very eyes. Fingers twisted into unnatural positions and fractured bone slid through the flesh of their forearms, like blades being drawn from grisly sheaths. More blood gushed across the floor, turning it red.
Ribs exploded outwards from their chests, making craters like I’d seen in the chest of the demon, except these weren’t empty. Their beating hearts were visible; dark red rubies nesting between paler pinkish red sponges. The lungs swelled with the air needed to make those pain filled cries, and I found myself waiting for the power to squeeze the life from the organs. But the seconds dragged into minutes and still the men suffered, denied an end to their torment.
The demon’s voice returned, hissing through my mind. “Your lives, in return for my freedom. Enjoy your revenge.”
My gaze lingered on the dying men, inwardly grateful their tormentor didn’t seem to know freeing it had been my second choice. I tried to thank it both telepathically and out loud, but I don’t know whether it heard me. Then I stalked through the group of Slayers, ignoring the pleading in their eyes for me to finish them off. Hannah’s blood still stained my skin, mixed with that of the dog and, above all, Amy. They didn’t deserve my mercy.
I headed back towards the control room, wanting to check on the others before resuming the hunt for David. I knew the longer I delayed searching for him, the more chance he would have to escape the base, but the need to make certain if Amy was still alive proved stronger than my dark need for revenge. And I convinced myself he wouldn’t have run yet, instead coming up with some last attempt to kill me before he fled the area. So I made a vow that whatever else happened that night, he wasn’t getting away. I would send him into the same world of pain his men had just been plunged into, and nothing was going to stop me.
There was still the matter of the necromancer as well. I guessed he or she hadn’t been among the humans I’d already killed, since they’d all been armed with guns. Had David taken the necromancer with him? He could be guarded by more reanimated corpses while they set another trap and waited for me to come to them. The thought didn’t worry me. He would still die, and if I was able to take the necromancer down with him then great. The less supernatural power our enemies had the better.
If the humans had any sense they’d all run, regardless of what abilities they possessed, supernatural or otherwise. But they were blinded by hatred. I felt certain mos
t of them would stay to try and kill me. After all, they’d built the entire place purely so they could enjoy my suffering and ultimately my death, and even though they’d panicked when things had started to go wrong, the chance for vengeance would be too tempting to pass up.
The core of my being was darkness so I knew all too well the lengths they’d be driven to. I was sure it would overpower their fear. But as I stalked back down the corridors without encountering more of the living, I began to have my doubts.
No more groups of Slayers came to take a shot at me and there weren’t even any risen as zombies. The only thing that slowed my progress was the transformation, causing me to falter again. The serum was fighting a losing battle. My face was starting to lengthen into a snout and fur was sprouting.
I willed it to go quicker again, desperate to revel in the strength of my lupine body once more. But the injection hadn’t completely worn off and it was still pushing against my bestial nature, trying to hold on to the human side of me. I roared with frustration through a half formed muzzle, ears still too far down the side of my head and body still mostly humanoid. But it would be enough to rip and tear the flesh of my enemies, when I found more of them. It would have to suffice for the time being, as long as the pain didn’t keep getting in the way.
I stumbled into the control room and over to the empty section of wall where the pane of glass had been. The demon was gone. I hadn’t sensed it in the corridors so I guessed it had flown through the hole in the roof. More importantly, I could see Lady Sarah and Zee were back on their feet and fully healed, and Gwyn was sitting upright. But dread stabbed through my gut when I saw Amy and Selina still lying motionless.