Authors: Richard Parry
“Ah.”
It was Morgan.
“I wouldn’t touch those if I was you.”
“No shit.
John, put that needle down.”
Everard’s voice was calm.
“Don’t even touch what comes out of it.”
“It’s bad?”
“Your face will melt off.”
“Really?”
Miles sounded doubtful.
“Why’d they have Adalia hooked up to it?”
“Because that bitch wanted something from me.”
“
Da
.
She can be very persuasive.”
“Shut it, Ivan.”
Carlisle waved the gun at the Russian.
“Anything you say can and will be —”
“I know Miranda.
But I do not think you know me.”
Volk sniffed the air.
“I do not smell
serebrom
.”
“Feel free to test it out for yourself.”
Carlisle’s gun moved back to cover Volk as she turned partially towards Miles.
She was about to ask him to get the girl out of here.
She never got the chance.
Tim Spencer stood in the doorway, a pistol in one hand.
“Isn’t this cosy.”
He looked around the room.
“Police.
That complicates things a little.”
He shrugged, then levelled his pistol and shot Carlisle four times with it.
She felt the bullets hit home, falling back, a spray of blood against the clear glass window at the back of the room.
She was lucky, in a way, that the man was injured — his shots were low.
Two bullets hit her legs.
Only two bullets for her chest.
The vest took the worst of it, but she went down, the scream coming from her as the pain rose up.
Hell of a way to be lucky.
CHAPTER FORTY
Val didn’t take his eyes off Volk.
He hadn’t stopped watching the man when Carlisle and John and —
God, what’s she doing here, she can’t be here, she can’t
— Danny walked through the door.
He didn’t want them here.
Despite that, he felt the comfortable warmth of their presence in the room.
The other —
Brother / Father / Saviour / Killer / Sickness / Enemy / It must die.
— man stood across from Val.
He was next to Elsie Morgan, the woman who’d brought him here.
Val felt the irony of Birkita being with his —
Pack.
— friends behind him, rather than with her mother and the Russian.
Val could smell the cordite in the air; the smell clung to Carlisle, standing tall at his side, like a coat she’d thrown on against the winter.
Thick and strong, it spoke of passage through enemies.
He could smell the blood too, the metal tang of it sharp in the back of his throat.
His lips pulled apart, teeth showing.
Carlisle was herding the room, organising people like she’d done this a hundred times.
Val heard a new voice —
Spencer
— and felt Carlisle’s attention swing to the door.
The shots rang out hard and fast.
Just for a second, Val’s attention wavered from Volk, his eyes pulled to Carlisle as she stumbled back, red splashes coming from her, through her, and she was down.
It was only for a second.
Volk pounced, grabbing Carlisle’s gun from the floor.
Val tensed to spring —
it’s only a gun
— but held back.
Volk wasn’t pointing the gun at him.
The gun was pointed to Val’s right, towards his friends.
Val was sure he could deal with just one shooter, and edged in front of the chair, keeping —
Pup.
— Adalia at his back.
Spencer smiled a tired, dead smile and limped over to join Volk and Elsie.
The man raised his rifle and pointed it in their direction.
“Everard.
You’re a hard man to
put down
.”
The emphasis on the last two words was unmistakable.
“Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do with rabid dogs?”
Val saw the slight tightening of Elsie’s eyes.
She was looking behind Val.
“Birkita.
Come over here.
You’ll be safer.”
“Safer?”
There were tears in the girl’s — Birkita’s — voice.
“You tried to kill my friend!”
“It was make-believe.
A trick.”
Elsie lied like a pro — something to remember for later, if later ever came.
“Now come over here.”
“It’s ok.”
Val nodded, sparing the girl a glance.
“Birkita?
Go to your mother if you want.
You should make up your own mind.”
“My own mind?”
She seemed uncertain.
“Why?”
Val swivelled back to Volk, clenching his teeth.
“I — I’m pretty sure that today’s not going to have a happy ending.”
He thought of a girl named Amy.
“You should choose who you want to end it with.
John?”
“I’m here.”
“I know.
You’re always there.”
The half-smile pulled at Val’s face.
He hadn’t done anything to deserve such a friend.
“Can you check Carlisle?”
“I don’t think so.”
Spencer looked between them.
“I think we’re just going to —”
“No.”
Elsie interrupted Spencer with the ease of a person used to giving the orders.
She held her hand out, and Birkita started to walk to them.
“We don’t have what we want.”
“Yeah.
Yeah we do.”
Spencer’s head nodded towards Volk.
“I’ve made a deal.
We finish with Everard, and Volk will give us the gift.”
“Is this true?”
Elsie turned to Volk, her eyes searching for something.
“
Da
.”
The Russian was holding Carlisle’s sidearm like it was a water pistol.
“The mistake must be fixed.
Then we can go see movie.”
She turned back to Spencer.
“He’s lying to you.”
“Of course he is.”
Spencer tapped a belt around his body, studded with grenades.
“That’s why I brought these.”
“My friend.”
Volk’s teeth were showing.
“What did you bring?
Not something made with silver.
We have had that talk.”
“These grenades are filled with silver nano particles.
They’re linked to my vital signs.”
Spencer tapped a small box at his waist.
“If I go down — well, whoever kills me is going to get a silver enema.”
“I am hurt you do not trust me.”
“You should be thankful I’ve been this… thoughtful.
It’s how we can be sure that Everard won’t kill us.
And — naturally — that I get the gift without you taking a little too much.”
“Da.”
Volk seemed thoughtful.
“Silver particles?
What are particles?”
“I don’t have time for a chemistry lesson.
But I do have time for a lesson in human nature.”
That dead smile crossed Spencer’s face again.
“Everard, you have to choose.
Who dies first?
It’s going to be one of the girls.”
The rifle in Spencer’s hands moved back and forth.
Danny stood next to Val.
“Me.
I go first.”
“What?”
Val looked at Danny.
“No.
Please.”
Pack mate!
She put a finger on his lips.
“Shhh.
You can’t do what you need to do if you’re thinking about me.
Save my baby.”
She leaned in close to his ear.
“I love you too.”
Then she turned and ran at Spencer.
Val’s hand was reaching for her back as the shots spoke hard and true.
He didn’t feel the bullets, and looked at Spencer’s rifle, seeing the curl of smoke rising from the barrel.
His eyes followed the line of the shot, back to —
No.
His eyes wouldn’t see.
It couldn’t be.
There was blood, so much blood, and she was —
No!
Volk was laughing from the other side of the room, then pointed Carlisle’s gun at Val.
“Here.
I help.”
He pulled the trigger, the shot slapping into Val’s arm.
Val didn’t notice, all he could see was —
He held the elevator doors open.
He’d wanted to tell her since the day he’d seen her.
“I love you.
”
Then he dropped into darkness.
— Her hair, the crimson spreading out below her, as her dead eyes —
NO!
John was shouting something, but Val couldn’t hear it.
Elsie was grabbing for Birkita’s arm, trying to pull the girl away from the middle of the room, but Val ignored it all.
Another shot hit his chest, but he felt nothing, all he could feel was —
Danny leaned in close, the heat of her finger still on his lips.
She whispered, “I love you too.
”
— the pounding pressure in his head, the feeling rising through him like a wave, the force of it too much to hold.
No one should have to feel this, not again, not ever, not anymore —
please God no, not Danny, no —
The beast broke from within him as his useless humanity fell from him like his flesh, thrown aside like old rags.
The rage tore through, and he roared his loss and hate.
THEY WILL ALL DIE.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
John scrambled across the floor, pulling Adalia close to his chest.
“Don’t look honey.
Don’t look.
Close your eyes.”
He held the girl close to him, hunching to create a shield with his body.
She was crying against him, the sobs wracking her little frame.
John heard the shot and held Adalia tighter.
He could see the patch of red on Val’s arm.
His friend’s face was stricken, one arm held out towards Danny.
He didn’t look to be taking any notice.
“Val!
Get down!”
John shouted it, but the second gunshot came anyway.
It hit Val’s body, but the man didn’t even move.
Volk was looking at the pistol in his hand, then back at Val.
His eyes widened.
John looked, and saw —
My God.
My God.
My God.
Val stood, a scream of rage coming from him.
He spread his arms wide, then clawed at his chest, big hunks of skin sloughing off.
Val grew, his body twisting, becoming more massive, his face twisting, his teeth —
John blinked, and saw the creature.
The change hadn’t taken more than a count of three.
The creature —
Val, my God, it’s Val
— stood over them all, then walked towards Danny's fallen body.
The weight of it cracked the floor tiles; John could feel the
size
of it as the floor moved under him.
Volk spoke into the silence.
“No.
Is not possible.
To change, you must die.”
Val nuzzled Danny's body.
A little blood was left on his snout, and he licked his nose.
A low whine escaped him, turning into a low growl.
“Ah.”
Volk showed his teeth at Spencer.
“You have done a very stupid thing.”
Spencer had turned pale, his hands shaking as he tried to put a new clip into his weapon, a red clip.
“For Christ’s sake, do something!”
His fingers fumbled, the clip dropping to the floor.
Spencer dropped to his knees, scrabbling for the lost clip.
“Ok.
So is not
serebrom
.”
Volk sighed, then inverted Carlisle’s sidearm, pointing the muzzle at his chest.
He breathed in once, twice, then pulled the trigger.
Elsie screamed as the shot sprayed red out the back of the man, and Volk’s body tumbled to the ground.
John looked over at Elsie.
“Get her out of here!”
He nodded at Birkita, who was hunched next to the wall, saying something over and over.
She held a —
what the hell?
— small toy in her hand.
It looked like a pony.
“No!”
Elsie stood.
“She needs it!
She’ll die without it!”
“She’ll die if you stay!”
John looked around.
He’d dropped his gun, it had to be here somewhere —