“There are a shitload of Were in here,” she told him. He didn’t take his eyes off the way ahead as he nodded tersely.
***
The main hall consisted of a vast area with statues placed in a geometric pattern. Throughout the open area, large granite blocks made it look like a life-size Legoland. Archways at the far end of the hall led into the darkness beyond.
The orange and black fur of Weretigers threaded in and out among the blocks. One leapt to the top of a stack and screamed its disapproval of the unwanted guests.
Marcie fired first, then Kaeden. Tyson and Samantha were taking aim by the time the Were jumped out of sight. Their reaction time had been only a fraction of a second, but it was too slow. Aaron and Yanmei changed into Were form.
“Fuck no!” Marcie yelled. “Do you want to get shot?”
The Weretigers made to pad away, but she stopped them. “Cover me,” Marcie snarled to Kaeden as she ripped a length of rope from her pack. She cut it quickly into lengths using her Kukri knife and tied it around the Weretigers’ necks. They snarled and snapped. “Shut up!”
They settled down. Kae fired intermittently at the targets that were using the blocks to foil his aim.
“I hope the others figure out that you’re on our side,” Marcie told Aaron and Yanmei. She kicked her pack to the side. “Triangle formation. Kae and me, this side. Shonna and Merrit on the right. You two, watch our six.”
Tyson and Samantha nodded.
“Stay close together. Do not let them get in between us,” she cautioned, hatcheting an arm toward an open area between the highest blocks. Marcie regretted that Shonna and Merrit were only armed with the shortswords they’d acquired a long time before.
They moved slowly forward. A tiger appeared on the blocks above them and leapt, landing in the open area of the combat triangle.
Right where Marcie did NOT want one to be.
***
Timmons and Sue hurried ahead. Cory and Ramses rushed after them while Edwin remained at the doorway. One way in, one way out. He watched the outdoors, but what if something got past those inside?
I’m a sitting duck, he thought. He looked down the stairs as far as the light penetrated. He removed his pack, trying to keep one eye on the outdoors. He ran down the stairs and scattered the contents of his pack up and down the landings. Anything coming up that way would disturb something and give him some time to react.
He hoped.
Edwin returned to his post, then moved outside and put his back against the wall. He shivered with the thought of getting a knife or a claw in the back. If he faced his enemy, he had a chance. He wasn’t afraid to fight anything, but he needed to know it was coming. He settled in to wait.
He listened carefully. Gunfire from the main building above, muffled as it came from inside. He couldn’t tell which group was engaged.
From the doorway, he heard nothing, not even the sound of footsteps. Edwin’s heart started to race.
***
Shonna and Merrit turned and slashed. The Weretiger pressed forward. Kae fired into nearby blocks. Marcie never saw a target although she was sure something had been there, otherwise Kae would not have fired.
She spotted an orange flash and fired. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Behind her, Shonna and Merrit were fighting a losing battle against the Weretiger. Tyson turned and unloaded into the creature. The silver bullets tore into it.
A scream of agony ripped from its throat. The Werewolves attacked and finished the creature. Tyson checked his magazine before reseating it. His eyes darted almost fanatically from one set of blocks to the next.
A rush. Three more Weretigers materialized in front of them and charged.
***
The Were occupied every dark recess on the upper level.
At least that was what Terry told himself. Char’s unerring aim, when added to his own, held the enemy at bay. Terry moved quickly, like he was in a shooting gallery looking to improve on his last score.
He never hesitated. One Weretiger got too close and pounced. Terry slashed into its forelegs with his Mameluke, but even TH’s great strength couldn’t sever both.
The creature screamed and raked Terry’s up-thrust arm with his remaining claw as it crashed into him. Terry twisted and guided the Weretiger past. Auburn jammed the barrel of his rifle against the creature to keep it away from him and pulled the trigger. Kim took aim and finished it.
Terry turned back, grimacing from the savage wound on his arm. Three slashes through the muscle all the way to the bone. The nanocytes started to knit the muscles back together as Terry watched. His arm hung uselessly by his side. He shoved his Mameluke back into its scabbard and picked up his pistol in his good hand.
“Let’s go,” he ordered. His fingers twitched on his left hand as feeling slowly returned. His arm hung at his side as he focused completely on the pistol he carried in his right hand. A flash of orange and he fired. Kim and Auburn fired.
One of their bolts locked to the rear. A new magazine was slapped into place and the bolt driven home. The empty magazine was shoved into a pocket. He didn’t need to look to know what actions took place. He knew them by heart.
They all did.
The cat screams and firing from below told Terry that Marcie was fully knee-deep in the shit.
As Terry’s team left a wide hallway and reached the balcony overlooking the main area, he risked a look down below. In that short glance, he saw that Marcie and her team would not survive the attack the Weretigers were setting up. He took a breath to yell for her to fall back when Char fired fast. He turned and crouched.
The others opened up, fired, changed magazines and kept firing. The Weretigers had had enough of the intruders. They were coming.
All of them.
***
“Fuck this!” Timmons yelled. The vibrations through the wall said that those above were fighting for their lives. Timmons and Sue sensed nothing and felt nothing.
“Call the cavalry,” Timmons growled as he turned back and started running. Sue chased after him with Cory and Ramses close behind. They accelerated to Were speed, retracing their steps in only seconds. They hit the stairs at a full run, slipping and crashing through all the junk on the stairs.
Timmons was hot when he hit the top step. A rifle barrel was whipping around to face him. Timmons caught it in one hand and pushed it away. “Follow us,” was all he said. The others rushed past Edwin on their way to the wide staircase leading to the main entrance.
Edwin sprinted to catch up, wondering briefly if he’d be able to recover his gear. He cast the thought from his mind. Marcie’s team was fighting for its life and Timmons was leading the reinforcements. This was one party they couldn’t be late for.
***
“Fall back!” Terry yelled toward the railing as he aimed and fired. One shot, one kill. Except Weretigers were tougher than that. A head shot could skip off. The round had to go through an eye, ear, the roof of the creature’s mouth, or up through its lower jaw. They didn’t stand still long enough for such precision shooting. Terry and Char were close, enough to ruin the Weres’ attacks, but it took a follow up shot or blade strike to finish the attacker.
Terry plus four against fifteen of the creatures. Terry’s bolt locked as the last spent casing ejected. He reached for his spare magazine, a move that he’d practiced a million times, but his hand flopped against the pouch at his belt. His fingers weren’t obeying his commands. He tucked the pistol under his armpit and ejected the magazine onto the floor.
A Weretiger rammed him. Terry went with the momentum, flowing forward with his attacker. He hit the ground and rolled, coming up on top of the Weretiger. He punched, using his sword’s pointed guard to crack the creature across its head. It slapped its claws into the back of Terry’s flak jacket, digging in and dragging the human toward its fangs.
Terry rained blow after blow into its head. It closed its jaws as it tried to pull away, giving the colonel the opening he
needed to drag the blade across the Weretiger’s throat. He cut through the soft tissue in a rage and kicked the creature from him as he jumped back to his feet.
He slashed an attacker that was tied up with Char. Kim and Auburn stood shoulder to shoulder, firing methodically. The silver bullets and the steady pace of fire the only thing that kept the team from being overwhelmed.
Nick was down, a dead Weretiger on top of him. Terry had no time to check on the man.
It was now or never.
Terry charged into the streak of tigers, whirling his blade in a way that made it look like a solid sheet of steel.
Char stopped to change magazines.
Auburn’s bolt locked to the rear. “I’m out!” he yelled, unclipping his rifle from its combat sling and wielding it like a club.
Terry bellowed his war cry as he waded into battle.
***
Marcie roared in rage. Her eyes flared red as her adrenaline peaked. She fired and slashed, then fired again. Shonna and Merrit stayed close behind her and Kaeden. Tyson and Samantha were waging a battle of their own against a sole Weretiger that had managed to get behind them. They stood apart and fired, using the three-round burst to compensate for the Were’s speed.
They hit it often enough to hold it at bay, but they were burning through their ammunition too quickly. Tyson charged it, thrusting as if a bayonet were attached. When the barrel hit the thing’s chest, he yanked the trigger. Three silver rounds blasted through the Weretiger’s heart. It flopped to the ground. Samantha put one into its head, just to be sure.
They turned back to face a wall of Weretigers bearing down on them. The Weres were flowing over and around the blocks. Tyson high to the right, while Samantha fired at the creatures coming from high to the left. Then they turned to face those attacking from behind.
They were surrounded.
Marcie fired at point-blank range, holding her ground as she slashed and dodged. Kae fired twice, butt-stroked an attacker, and then fired again. Shonna and Merrit were pressed on their side.
They slashed back and forth, trying to hold back the tide.
The Weres bled, but they weren’t held back. Slashes appeared across the Werewolves’ chests and arms. When the Weretigers got to their legs, Shonna and Merrit went down. Holding on to each other as they fell under the onslaught.
***
Timmons ran through the front door and toward the screams and orange fur. The others spread out. They started firing into the Weretigers facing away from them. Even Cory didn’t hesitate to use her pistol. Ramses’s rifle was more effective, but the heavier firepower carried the risk of punching through a cat body and hitting one of the friendlies beyond.
He stopped firing at the group at eye-level and changed his aim to those at the side or above the group.
Kaeden cried out in pain. Samantha went down and Tyson stood over her, firing as quickly as he could pull the trigger, until he was dragged down. Even then, he kept firing as he disappeared beneath snarling, orange fur.
Only Marcie remained standing. Timmons and Sue rushed in, only to be attacked and embroiled within an ambush of Weretigers. Timmons and Sue raged. Cory and Ramses fired using their enhanced speed.
Edwin tried to make sense of it all, picking a target away from the others and firing. He growled in satisfaction when it went down, before he joined the others.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Terry dispatched his enemies with merciless efficiency. The world slowed for him as his body became one with the enhanced universe. The etheric funneled power into his nanocytes, and by extension, into him.
His healed arm seemingly acted on its own as it pulled the whip and started cracking. The Mameluke whistled as it sped through the air, far faster than the Weretigers could respond. His bull rush had caught them by surprise. He waded through them, clearing a wide path, buttressed on one side by the wall and on the other by a thirty-foot drop to the floor below.
Char moved to the wall, where she could fire from relative safety. Kimber and Auburn did the same on the balcony rail side. They covered the colonel’s flank.
All of a sudden, there was a lull in the fighting. The enemy was dead or dying. Kaeden’s scream and Marcie’s howls came clearly from the main floor.
Terry slashed an injured Weretiger, putting it out of its misery as he jumped to the railing. He saw the melee below. Only Marcie stood as Weretigers bore down on her. A writhing mass made it impossible to distinguish who was winning. Sue and Timmons had come to the rescue, only to be surrounded.
“NOOOO!” Terry yelled and vaulted over the railing. Char didn’t hesitate. She ran the ten steps across the hallway and launched herself over the railing as well. Kim and Ramses watched their parents sail through the air toward the mess below.
“Let’s go,” Kim ordered as they ran through the dying Weretigers and into the hallway beyond. The group had to come from somewhere. Those below would die if the Weretigers could add a few more to their number. “We need to torch this place.”
Nick tried to sprint after them, but he’d been slashed. His leg was bleeding and it hurt. The nanocytes were starting to work on it, but they were much slower than what he’d seen from the others. He stopped and dug a bandage out of his pack.
***
Marcie heard the yell from above, but she could barely keep up. Weretigers were dying at her hand, but there were more of them than she’d expected. Her pistol emptied, she used it as a club, but it didn’t deter the attackers like her silvered, curved knife.
A body crashed into two Weretigers, landing on them and breaking their backs with the force of the impact. Terry’s eyes glowed a vivid red as his movements blurred from their speed.
Even with Marcie’s enhanced vision, she couldn’t follow him. He moved in a deliberate circle around her group while she held the flank, trying to protect her husband. Terry ripped furry bodies off the Werewolves as Char landed on a block to the side. She aimed and fired into the attackers.
Marcie saw an opening and rushed through, hacking and slashing as she went. Rifle fire continued from Timmons’s group. Marcie cleared a path before clawing her way back to the middle.
Claws tore at her legs and she stomped at the attackers. Claws ripped at her body armor. She hacked back.
Char fired until she had not a single bullet left. She dropped her pistols, ripped off her clothes, changed into Were form, and leapt into the fray.
***
Kim and Auburn ran through the empty hallways, looking for more Weretigers or at least a door they could bolt from this side.
They found stairs down and took them.
“Nick’s not with us,” Auburn said softly, eyes darting back and forth as he expected the enemy to appear from every shadow.
“He was injured in the last attack,” Kim replied matter-of-factly. It wasn’t a surprise that he couldn’t keep up, but it didn’t change their course of action. The plan had gone to hell. As her dad had said, no plan survives first contact.
She had seen the mass of bodies on the floor below and wasn’t sure any of her people would survive. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to do everything in her power to give them a fighting chance, including putting her body between the attackers and her family.
Auburn was new to war. He understood sacrifice only too well, but not the calculated risks of combat. She wanted to cut off reinforcements to hopefully even the odds.
When they exited the stairs at the main level, they ran face-first into two Weretigers wearing rope collars. Auburn aimed and fired.
If it hadn’t been for Kim’s quick hand to knock his barrel aside, Aaron would have taken a silver round to the face. She held up her hands and Aaron showed one fang. Yanmei tipped her head in a different direction and she padded down a side hallway with Aaron close behind. Kim and Auburn joined them.
***
Shonna and Merrit burst from the pile, their Werewolf pelts horribly crisscrossed and torn by Weretiger claws.
Terry continue
d without hesitation, whirling his sword and ending the lives of one Weretiger after the next. He saw human arms and legs sticking out from beneath a massive beast. He grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and threw the corpse away.
Tyson looked no worse for wear. He wasn’t even bleeding. Samantha’s flak jacket was shredded and she was covered in blood, but only some of it was hers.
Terry noticed those details in less than an instant as he was already moving on. He roared anew as he attacked the back of the Weretigers facing off against Sue and Timmons.
Attacking from the rear broke the will of the group. The Weretigers disengaged as if a recall had been blown by a silent bugle.
Terry bounced back and forth as he surveyed three hundred and sixty degrees, ceiling to floor, and back again.
Kae crawled to his knees and then stood on shaky legs. A gross tear in his flesh trailed down one arm and continued into the meat of his upper thigh. Kaeden’s nanocytes were already working to repair the damage.
Still, Kae looked exhausted. Marcie’s eyes stopped glowing and she leaned heavily against her husband. A Werewolf with a brown pelt and silver belly fur stood near them, watching the blocks, watching the space, tensed and baring her fangs.
Rifle fire echoed from the archways and Char took off, her four legs propelling her to Werewolf speed. Terry launched after her. Shonna and Merrit loped after them, but slowed when they grew dizzy from lack of blood. They fell over after a few steps.
“Watch them,” Marcie told Kaeden as she ran after her parents.
“Who is hurt the worst?” Cory called from somewhere behind Kae. He didn’t speak as he watched his wife sprinting toward the open archway. Kae pointed to Shonna and Merrit before leaning against the nearest block. His hand shook as he removed his pack.
He knew that it was from the energy coursing through his body as it repaired his injuries. It had happened when he had the crossbow bolt through his chest, too. He smiled darkly knowing that he could return to action as soon as needed.
Nomad Omnibus 03: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (A Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Omnibus) Page 87