by Nick Moseley
‘Why do you always have to point out my shortcomings?’
‘Hang on a sec,’ said Oscar, suddenly alert. ‘I think they’re coming back.’
Trev stretched out with his senses and felt a tickle of something in the background. His chest tightened. ‘Shit, you’re right.’ He raised his voice. ‘Barton, second wave, incoming!’
Barton didn’t waste time asking how Trev knew that. He barked instructions, getting the guards set and making sure that nobody’s back was being left unguarded, then radioed Mac to forewarn the walkway team. Everyone activated their vapour weapons and waited.
The silence stretched out. Even the prisoners seemed to be holding their breath, each aware that all they could do was hope that they wouldn’t get an unwelcome visitor in their cell. Trev’s heart pounded like a bongo-player on amphetamine and his eyes jittered around the ground floor, searching for movement or a flash of green.
‘There!’ said Oscar, whose vision was the sharpest. ‘And there! And there! And… oh shit.’
Four shadows simultaneously appeared at the corners of the cell block and charged the guards.
The calming effect of their vapour weapons prevented the guards from panicking, but it was a close thing. They retreated towards the centre of the floor as the shadows moved in, Barton’s strategic advice forgotten. The cell block was abruptly filled with shouts and the sound of weapons; flashes of multicoloured light burst through the darkness, illuminating cell bars, brickwork, and frightened faces.
Trev had been right – it was like a disco. Albeit a terrifying, potentially-fatal disco, with him in the middle of the dance-floor.
The shadows had seemed to avoid him, going instead for easier targets. Trev hesitated. He’d meant to pitch in alongside anyone who looked like they were in trouble, but everyone looked like they were in trouble. The shadows attacked in a frenzy, unfazed by the vapour weapons being used against them and just trying to grab their opponents.
Move, lad! said Caladbolg’s voice in Trev’s head. It was enough to snap him out of his indecision. He ran to the nearest pair of guards. The two men were barely keeping one of the shadows at bay, the creature throwing itself against their weapons again and again, driving them back. Trev came in from the side, Caladbolg slipping past the shadow’s arm and striking it across the chest. It dodged away and Trev followed up with a sweeping attack aimed at its legs.
The shadow dodged again, its outline blurring in the light from Trev’s weapons as it moved. Trev followed up with more attacks, forcing the creature away from its intended victims. As the previous shadow he’d fought had done, it escaped into an empty cell and faded into the wall.
‘Close the cell door and watch it doesn’t come back!’ Trev shouted to the two guards. He ran to the next group, which included Barton. The Custodian was laying into the attacking shadow with his axe and appeared to be holding his own.
‘I’m OK, help them!’ Barton shouted to Trev, jerking his head at the two guards to his left. Trev turned towards them in time to see one of the men die, the shadow seizing his arm as he over-reached with his weapon. Swearing, Trev threw himself at the creature and managed to intercept it before it could reach the second guard. It made itself a difficult target, weaving about in front of him, but didn’t try to escape as the others had.
‘I’ll handle this one!’ Trev called to the guard he’d rescued. ‘Help the others!’
The shadow took a swipe at him. He parried with Tyrfing and counter-attacked with Caladbolg, just missing. Above him the rattle of feet on the walkway indicated that the guards up there were also under attack. The shadows had apparently abandoned their sneaky tactics in favour of an all-out assault. Given that all Trev and his companions could do was defend themselves until they ran out of energy, it stood a good chance of being successful.
Trev felt a surge of frustration which rapidly developed into anger. They were trapped in a hopeless fight and people were dying. Why hadn’t they been evacuated while there was still time? Why hadn’t the Custodians sent more reinforcements? Why couldn’t he stop the killing?
The shadow dodged around him as if challenging him, or maybe mocking him. The anger continued to swell and he stepped back into the fight.
‘Oscar!’ he shouted as he spun past a lunging attack. ‘Tell Barton to fall back to the door!’
‘What’ll you be doing?’ the cat asked, sticking near to Trev but well away from the shadow.
‘I’m going to kill this bastard thing,’ Trev snapped.
He didn’t wait for Oscar’s response, instead drawing on his depleting energy reserves and launching a ferocious assault on the dancing shadow. It tried to stand its ground, arms blurring as it blocked the incoming blows, but couldn’t. It took one step back, then another. The Twins hammered into it, sending gouts of black essence into the air. For all his effort, though, it was clear that Trev’s weapons weren’t doing any meaningful damage. He was simply wearing himself out to no good effect.
He broke away. The shadow lowered its arms and stared at him. It looked completely unharmed, while he was red-faced, panting, and feeling every single one of his injuries.
‘Any ideas?’ he murmured to his weapons.
It burns me to say it, but run, lad, said Caladbolg. There’s nothing to gain by dying here.
I agree, said Tyrfing. This was a poor place to give battle. The enemy holds the edge.
‘Bollocks,’ said Trev. ‘All right.’
He moved to make a break for the door and the shadow leapt at him, arms wide.
Too off-balance to dodge, Trev lashed out with The Twins. The swords struck the creature in its chest, knocking it sprawling, but the force of the impact sent Trev staggering backwards. He crashed into the cell door behind him, his head bouncing off the bars with a dull bong.
He wasn’t even halfway towards regaining his wits when hands reached through the bars and grabbed his wrists from behind, pinning them against the metal.
‘It seems to me,’ said Lionel Vermont’s voice in his ear, ‘that if I have to die, I’d rather go having watched you die first.’
‘Let me go, you twat,’ Trev hissed, struggling. The vampire’s grip was like a vice. He couldn’t shift it. ‘I’ll protect us both!’
‘You can’t protect me from that thing, any more than taking an aspirin would protect me from being decapitated,’ Vermont said.
The shadow had recovered from its fall and was advancing on them. Its eyes blazed with triumph.
‘Please!’ Trev gasped.
‘Don’t beg,’ Vermont said, reproach in his voice. ‘Face death with dignity.’
The shadow reached for Trev.
Thirty-Eight
Trev pressed his head back against the bars in a vain attempt to keep away from the shadow’s hands. They rose towards his head, as if to cup his ashen face like a lover. Trev tried to swivel his wrists to get The Twins pointed at his attacker but Vermont had too firm a hold.
It was over. He was dead.
Then a flash of green passed across his vision and the shadow was gone.
‘What?’ said Vermont.
His grip slackened for a second and Trev, his system already coursing with enough adrenaline to jump-start a dead horse, reacted immediately. He wrenched his right hand free and swivelled around, thrusting Caladbolg through the bars at the vampire. Vermont had no choice but to let go of Trev’s other wrist in order to dodge. Trev jumped away from the cell and turned to see where the shadow had gone.
It was at the far end of the cell block, fighting with another shadow. Trev couldn’t quite make out what was going on; it looked as if the second shadow was attacking its opponent on all fours. As the two combatants separated for a moment, however, he realised that it wasn’t a humanoid shape at all. It was a quadruped.
It was the wolf-shadow.
‘The hell?’ Trev said to himself.
He took a step towards the fight, unable to decide whether he ought to pitch in and help the wolf or not. The creature had saved his
life, but whether it had been deliberate was debatable – it might just have been attacking the nearest enemy, in which case it could turn on him if he tried to assist. In any case, it didn’t look like it needed his help. It was mauling the unfortunate shadow quite effectively on its own.
Vermont put his head against the cell door and tried to get a view of the action. ‘What happened?’ he demanded.
‘Don’t know,’ Trev replied. ‘And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.’
‘At best you’ve just extended your existence by a few minutes,’ Vermont sneered. ‘Surely you realise that we’re all going to die here?’
‘Some sooner than others,’ Trev said, noticing a green glow forming in the corner of the vampire’s cell.
‘What?’ said Vermont.
Trev smiled at him. ‘Behind you.’
He jogged away to rejoin Barton and the others. Vermont shouted something after him, possibly a plea for help. Whatever it was, Trev ignored it. The adrenaline had faded, replaced by seething anger. Vermont could fend for himself. Trev thought he might feel guilty about it later, but at that moment? Nope.
Ahead of him the remaining guards had fallen back to defend the main door as Trev had suggested. Maybe Oscar had managed to persuade Barton it was a good idea, or maybe the Custodian had decided to do it off his own bat. Either way, their escape route was clear, although the guards looked hard-pressed. They were holding off a group of four shadows, Barton standing in the middle of their defensive line and shouting encouragement between swipes of his axe.
Trev’s jog became a sprint. He ploughed into the back of the shadows, his anger lending a little extra speed to his blades. Now under attack from two sides, the shadows retreated. They fell back into the darkness until only their eyes were visible.
‘Good to see you got the message about defending the door,’ Trev said to Barton.
‘Just so you know, I don’t much like taking orders from a cat,’ Barton replied, his chest heaving.
‘You get used to it,’ Trev said. Oscar was sitting next to the door. He glanced up at Trev with a relaxed smile as if to say I did what you asked, so now I’m taking a break. ‘What’s going on upstairs? Are they coming down? We need to get out of this place. It’s too big to defend. The shadows can come at us from all sides.’
‘I told them to retreat but I haven’t had a response,’ Barton said, ‘and we’ve been under too much pressure down here to be able to send someone to help out.’
‘Fine, I’ll go,’ Trev said. He was concerned about Desai; she was more than capable of looking after herself, but Trev didn’t have the same confidence in the guards fighting alongside her. ‘Can your guys keep the door clear?’
‘We’ll manage,’ Barton said. ‘Just don’t take too long. I think our friends will be back as soon as you leave.’ He pointed with his weapon at the group of shadows still lurking in the dark near the cells.
‘Got it,’ said Trev. He ran for the steps up to the first floor, taking them two at a time. As he reached the first landing he looked up and saw three guards descending towards him. One of them was Suzanne. She was helping a male colleague support another man, who could barely walk and had blood streaming down his face.
‘Bloody hell, what happened?’ Trev asked her.
‘Fell down the steps from the second floor trying to avoid one of those shadows,’ Suzanne replied. ‘Mishti and Mac were covering us. They could probably use a wee bit of help.’
‘I’m on it,’ said Trev. ‘Tell Barton to be ready to leave.’
Suzanne nodded and the three guards carried on past Trev. He clattered up the remaining steps and onto the first-floor walkway. The first thing he saw was a dead guard. The man was slumped against the railing, his eyes staring blankly at the stairs. Trev clenched his hands tighter around his weapons and stepped past the body, looking for Desai.
She wasn’t hard to spot. Her green sword lit the walkway around her, blending with the blue light from the weapon that Mac was using. The two of them were trapped in a corner with shadows attacking from both sides. Fortunately the confines of the walkway had prevented them from being surrounded, but it also meant that they couldn’t get past the shadows to escape.
Trev ran towards them. The rusty metal beneath his feet rattled and shed flakes of paint as he pounded along. Mac saw him coming, and Trev was able to see the relief on his face in the light of his vapour weapon.
Don’t look at me, look at them! Trev thought, but it was too late.
The momentary distraction of seeing Trev caused Mac to mistime a parry. He deflected the shadow’s attack but couldn’t recover quickly enough and its other hand shot out to grab his wrist. He fell, leaving Desai exposed.
Even with both vapour weapons running, Trev felt a flicker of panic. ‘Move!’ he yelled.
Desai had a second to react while Mac’s falling body was blocking the shadow behind her from attacking, and she didn’t waste it. She spun, her sword flashing out in a two-handed blow. It knocked the shadow in front of her off balance, and she flowed straight into a shoulder roll that took her past it. She came up with her back to the railing and immediately had to defend herself as the two shadows pursued her.
Trev arrived in time to stop her from being overwhelmed. Between the two of them they managed to force the creatures to back off for a moment.
‘Downstairs,’ Trev panted.
‘But Mac–’ Desai began.
‘Is dead,’ Trev finished for her. ‘We have to go.’
She nodded. Without turning their backs to the shadows, they began working their way along the walkway. The two dark shapes followed, though they didn’t attack.
‘What are they doing?’ Desai hissed.
Biding their time, lass, Caladbolg answered. Take care!
Behind us! Tyrfing chipped in.
Trev turned and saw another pair of shadows coming up the stairs. Somehow they’d slipped past Barton’s group. They stopped at the end of the walkway, blocking any retreat. The two other shadows continued to follow Trev and Desai, forcing them towards their comrades.
‘Crap,’ said Desai. ‘Now what?’
Trev looked from one set of glowing eyes to the other. ‘Er,’ he said.
‘Can you hold off two of them at once?’
‘Not for long,’ Trev said. The gap between the two groups was narrowing.
‘Nor me.’ Desai’s voice was calm. ‘But we just have to manage until Barton’s team come for us.’
‘I don’t think they’re going to,’ Trev said. The sounds of combat from downstairs weren’t trailing off. The guards down there clearly still had their hands full.
‘Then we hang on as long as we can,’ Desai said.
‘Right,’ Trev replied, in what he hoped was a determined tone of voice. Any chance the wolf’ll save me again? he thought. Though the last time I was up on a walkway with that thing it was trying to kill me…
…wait a minute.
‘Over the railing!’ he said to Desai, remembering his escape from the wolf. Another couple of seconds and they’d be within striking distance of the shadows at the top of the stairs.
‘What?’ said Desai.
‘There’s a net!’ Trev said. He grabbed Desai’s arm and threw himself over the side just as the shadows rushed them.
It was a shorter fall than the first time. They landed in the net, Desai bouncing away from him. One of the shadows, either by accident or design, had fallen with them. The cords of the net cut into its body as it struggled to reach Trev’s outstretched leg.
‘Come on!’ Desai said. She’d shut off her vapour weapon so that she had both hands free to scramble across the net.
‘My foot’s stuck!’ Trev replied. It had pushed between the cords as he landed and he didn’t have enough purchase to free it. He pulled with his leg but didn’t achieve anything except bouncing himself up and down. The shadow dragged itself a little closer.
‘Cut the net!’ Desai shouted.
Trev nodded and slashed
Caladbolg through the net in a wide arc. The cords split and the net tore apart in the middle, sending Trev and Desai swinging in one direction and the shadow in the other. Trev found himself hanging upside-down with his foot still caught.
Desai, who had clung to the net as it fell, released her grip and dropped lightly onto the floor. ‘I meant for you to cut the net around your foot,’ she said, ‘not cut the whole bloody thing.’
‘Ah,’ said Trev. ‘Yeah, now you mention it that does sound like a better idea.’
She cut him free and he flopped onto the concrete. ‘What happened to that shadow?’ he asked.
‘Heading this way,’ said Desai. ‘Let’s go.’
They ran towards the door. Barton and his team had kept the exit clear, but they’d been pushed back into a tight semicircle around it with no further room to retreat. Trev saw several bodies on the floor. A line of shadows harried the defenders, bathing them in the green glow from their eyes. The three that Trev and Desai had escaped from on the walkway were almost at the bottom of the stairs and others were appearing out of darkened cells and pools of shadow.
‘Holy crap,’ Trev said.
‘Barton!’ Desai called out. ‘We’re leaving!’
The Custodian gave the faintest of nods in response, his concentration focused on the shadow in front of him. His purple axe struck at the creature with precise, economical movements.
Trev and Desai bowled into the line of shadows from the side, relieving some of the pressure on the guards. Barton shouted a command and one of the men broke off to man the door. He dragged it open and checked that the corridor was clear before calling out to Barton that it was safe.
The guards began to withdraw one at a time. Trev, who had expected a mad rush for the exit, realised that Barton must have given his team instructions beforehand. He still thought that the Custodian was a pompous control-freak, but at that point he could’ve kissed him for it.
Shortly Trev, Desai and Barton were the last three left. They were pressed back against the door, shoulder-to-shoulder. The shadows piled up against them, their hands clutching, but were unable to make the most of their superior numbers because they couldn’t surround their opponents.