Seven Deadly Sons (6 page)

CHAPTER TEN

"Do you think he'll show?" Jimmy Kane asked, his voice a low whisper.

"Quiet," Mark Kenslir said.

Jimmy rolled over in bed, careful to keep Yadid Greenberg's sheets pulled up almost over his head. He twisted in place, trying to get comfortable, but one of the old man's dirty t-shirts was digging into his back.

"And why all these clothes?" Jimmy said, trying to get comfortable. "I mean, aren't his dirty sheets enough?"

Across the bedroom, hiding in the shadows of an open closet, Mark Kenslir gritted his teeth. "We're masking your scent, Kane."

"Easy for you to say," Jimmy whispered. "You aren't laying in a dirty clothes hamper." He finally managed to move the shirt out from under him, pushing it against the other soiled clothes all around him in the bed.

"Kane—shut up!" Kenslir hissed. "Vampires have excellent hearing, too."

Jimmy lay quietly for a few minutes, but the boredom was too much for him. And Yadid's pillow was really uncomfortable.

"I need to talk to you about Josie," Jimmy said.

"Kane," Kenslir said in a low growl.

"Look, I know how you're old-fashioned and all, and technically you're her grandfather-"

"Kane, you really need to be quiet."

"You're not broadcasting are you?" Jimmy said, suddenly embarrassed. While the team normally stayed in constant communication with Command during all missions, Kenslir hadn't wanted to take any chances. He'd ordered that he and Jimmy be completely dark for the ambush.

"Whatever you want to talk about can wait, Kane. We have a job to do."

"I want your blessing," Jimmy blurted out.

The room was silent for several long seconds. Jimmy felt the hair on the back of his neck rise up.

"My blessing?"

"I want to ask Josie to marry me," Jimmy said, rolling over again. Even in his human form, his eyes were still superior to those of ordinary men. He should be able to make Kenslir out in the closet if he just strained enough. But once again, Kenslir was ninja-like in the shadows of the dark room.

"This isn't the time or place-"

"When is it? We're under surveillance twenty-four hours a day. I'm beginning to think you have my bathroom bugged," Jimmy said.

"You need to be asking Josie's mother this," Kenslir finally said.

"I know—you're not her dad, you've only known her a few months... but she thinks of you as her grandfather. As her blood. And Josie's an old-fashioned girl. I guess she got that from you."

Mark Kenslir felt at his wrist in the closet. The Braille watch he wore revealed the time. Midnight. If the monster responsible for the killings was coming, it would be any minute now according to Wallach.

"Kane. We'll talk tomorrow. Just be quiet. It's time."

Jimmy started to say something but relented. He felt better finally getting this off his chest. Now if he could only get all this stinky laundry off his chest.

***

The sudden rush of cold air nearly took the breath away from Pam Keegan. It was like a physical blow to her chest. It was completely unexpected and took the seasoned agent completely by surprise. She was trying to gasp for a breath when she saw the source of the cold.

Ten feet away, right near the wide, floor-to-ceiling windows of the apartment, the air was shimmering and swirling, distorted and out of focus, like looking through a large lens. The circle was at least seven feet in diameter, reaching from floor almost to the ceiling. And something more than bright, white light was coming out of it.

Its foot was long and tipped with claws that could rip through flesh like knives. Fur—white, streaked with tan—wrapped around the foot and up the leg emerging from the shimmering circle. The leg was attached to furry hips that led up to a wide torso rippling with huge muscles beneath its pale pelt. Arms reached out, seemingly grabbing the sides of the strange circle of cold and bright white light. The creature was pulling itself through from wherever the impossible opening originated.

Pam Keegan fired her pistol into the creature's wolf-like head with one hand as she shoved Yadid to the floor with the other.

"Get down!" she screamed.

***

Laura Olson had finally stopped screaming, Now she panted like an injured animal, hunkered over the small wading pool, her body convulsing and bulging all over, as though pockets of air were going to erupt beneath her skin. Her slacks and silk blouse were shredded, her once creamy skin heaving up and out of the ripped fabric like throbbing boils.

Dr. King and Dr. Guerrera had stepped back now.

So, too, Jason Trumball had broken off contact with Olson when the crackling of energy he was pulling from her body abruptly ceased and she began her convulsing.

"Doc?" Jason said, a scared expression his face. He was looking to Dr. King for guidance.

"Laura?" Dr. King called out. "Laura—can you hear me?"

Laura Olson, or what had been Laura Olson, dropped to one knee, and the convulsing increased. Now though, instead of stray upheavals of flesh swelling here and there on her body, her entire frame began to grow.

"Jason!" Dr. King said, gesturing for the young boy to move in.

Jason Trumball stepped in, grabbing at the grotesque, mottled pink and red flesh swelling on Laura Olson's back. Blue and purple veins throbbed in the meaty flesh and he hesitantly pressed both palms against it.

Again, red and blue lightning-like discharges erupted from the gap between his palms and Laura Olson's back. But this time the energy was not being drawn from the redhead's back, it was being draw from Jason.

Twin knots of flesh formed on Laura's back, each the size of a basketball. Skin split open as the knots suddenly burst, exploding blood and bodily fluids out in a vile spray. Along with the exploding meat, twin shafts of flesh extended, growing rapidly. They extended to lengths of nearly ten feet, then snapped open—leathery, bat-like wings.

The monster in the center of the room suddenly rose to its feet, spinning in place. It backhanded Jason Trumball, knocking the terrified teen off his feet and sending him flying into a wall.

Teen met concrete, and the reinforced gray wall crumbled from the impact. Jason tumbled to the floor, apparently unconscious.

Then the monster turned toward Dr. King and Dr. Guerrera.

Where before Laura Olson had been a beautiful young woman with creamy skin and a face suitable for modeling, a demonic-looking creature now stared at the doctors with malevolence in its yellow eyes. Its face was like the rest off its misshapen body—covered with boil-like lumps on purple-veined flesh knotted with cords of inhuman muscles threatening to explode free. Four horns stood out on the creature's forehead—each several inches long and glistening with fresh blood from having erupted through the former doctor's delicate skin.

Maria Guerrera began screaming for her life.

"Doctor Olson! Laura!" Dr. King said, pleading with the monster. He reached up and removed his glasses, allowing his one petrified eye to stare lifelessly at the beast.

To King's left, Maria Guerrera was in shock, about to faint from the sight before her. The monster took a step towards the woman then abruptly stopped. Its horrific face seemed to soften, then it spoke in a terrifying voice.

"You're pregnant!"

***

The massive werewolf was a good head taller than even Jimmy when he transformed. It's chest was almost twice as big around. Had he been there, it would have made Kane look like a greyhound standing beside a lion.

Pam Keegan quickly emptied the remaining rounds from her sidearm into the beast. The silver bullets all found their mark—a small grouping less than three inches across, directly over where the monster's heart should be.

Pam dropped her spent magazine and was reaching for a spare when the monster roared and lunged toward her.

Moments before the beast could reach her, its long claws inches away, a stone soldier smashed into the creature.

Pam heard bones shatter from the terrific impact and the giant werewolf was knocked to the side, into and through a wall—propelled by Isaac Jacobson, who had finally come out of hiding.

The werewolf was surprised at the impact, and was actually carried well into the next apartment, it and Jacobson's much smaller body obliterating wall and furniture.

When the creature recovered, it grabbed Jacobson then swung him around and threw him through the next wall, into the bedroom of the apartment. Then it charged in after him, roaring like a bull.

Pam Keegan wasted no time and pulled Yadid to his feet. "Run!" she screamed and pushed the old man toward the door of the apartment.

She fumbled with the lock but finally got the door open and pushed Yadid through first. She followed him quickly, glancing back to see if they were being pursued. But the horrific beast had not yet come back through the huge hole in the wall. And judging from the sounds coming out of that hole it would be busy for a moment or two more.

Pam pushed Yadid along as fast as she could.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The monstrous form Laura Olson had transformed into was gone now. She had shrunk back in on herself in seconds, her skin returning to its smooth, unblemished form, her body resuming the proportions of a young, physically fit woman. Her wings and horns were gone now as well, reabsorbed into her body.

"Amazing!" Dr. King said, his eyes wide. There was not a mark anywhere on Laura's body. No scar, no blemishes. Just smooth, creamy skin—all of it exposed.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer!" Laura snapped.

Dr. King blinked several times, then finally realized Olson was stark naked. He quickly turned around and slapped a hand over his good eye. "So, sorry!"

Laura took a step forward, then was just suddenly beside Dr. Guerrera. She had moved so fast, she was a naked blur.

"Are you okay?" she asked Guerrera.

The doctor shook her head, still partly dumbfounded. "What was that?"

Laura pulled Dr. Guerrera to her feet gently as the doctor also looked her up and down, amazed there was no trace of the horrendous transformation. "I guess I've got an inner demon now."

Across the chamber, Jason Trumball was stirring, groaning as he tried to sit up. Dr. King finally lowered his hand and walked quickly over to him.

"Jason? Are you all right, my boy?"

He propped Jason up into a sitting position, leaning him back against the damaged wall. He checked Jason's eyes and then felt at his wrist for a pulse.

"Amazing," Dr. Guerrera said, touching Laura's forehead gently, looking for any signs of the horns that had sprouted there moments ago.

"Doc," Laura said. "Are you okay?" She asked, looking down at Guerrera's stomach when she said it.

"What?" Guerrera asked. "Did you say I was pregnant?"

"Oh, great, you didn't know," Laura said. "Yes, I can hear the heartbeat. The baby's heartbeat."

Dr. Guerrera got a sudden shocked look on her face and held a hand to her stomach. "That's not possible..."

"Mark's, right?" Laura said, almost disappointed.

"Mark's?" Dr. Guerrera repeated, completely bewildered by the question. "Do you mean Colonel Kenslir? Why-?"

Before they could discuss it further, the lights in the room switched from bright white to red and warning klaxon sounded.

"What's that?" Laura asked, looking over at Dr. King. He was still helping Jason, who appeared to be dazed, but otherwise uninjured.

"The building is under attack," Dr. King said.

Laura stepped back from Dr. Guerrera. "Give me your coat."

"What?"

"You jacket—I need your jacket," Laura said. "I can't go running around in my birthday suit."

Dr. Guerrera nodded, still a little confused, and quickly shrugged off her labcoat.

"We are supposed to stay in here," Dr. King said, standing. "Protocol is to remain in place and let security handle the situation."

Laura was struggling to fit into the small coat. She was nearly a head taller than Guerrera and the coat just wasn't big enough. "I am not sitting here on my ass and leaving the humans to fend for themselves-"

She glanced quickly at Dr. Guerrera. "No offense."

"-not when I can help again," she finished, looking at Dr. King.

"The door is locked, you'll never get past it," Dr. King said.

Laura ran to the door, the small labcoat flapping behind her like a cape. She grabbed at the door and strained. Her eyes turned black and her muscles started to swell again, her skin taking on a purplish hue. Metal shrieked and finally gave way and the big door swung inwards.

"Wait!" Dr. King said.

Laura turned, halfway out the door.

"Take my jacket," Dr. King said, pitching his labcoat over.

***

Isaac Jacobson had been itching for a fight since his petrification. He'd sort of gotten one in Oklahoma a few months back, fighting a coven of witches, their zombified servants, a couple of resurrected dinosaurs and some bizarre, blue-skinned aliens from the past. Or something. He still wasn't sure what they had been.

Then there were the zombies in St. Louis. One hundred baby boomers, turned into cannibal monsters by some kind of demonic creature.

Neither fight had been particularly satisfying. In each, Jacobson had barely got to cut loose. In fact, he wondered if in his former flesh and blood life as a Navy SEAL he couldn't have handled them with the right equipment.

No, Isaac wanted a real challenge. Something to test his indestructible stone body and superhuman strength. And now he was getting it.

The beast he was facing was huge. Far larger than Jimmy Kane, the Detachment's own werewolf who helped out with the training missions Isaac and his fellow stone soldiers endured on an almost daily basis. Its head nearly touched the ceiling of the apartment they were in the process of destroying. Isaac guessed it weighed over eight hundred pounds.

And it was strong.

The beast had thrown Isaac—who weighed nearly four hundred pounds himself—around like a ragdoll. If he weren't made of living stone, he'd surely be dead by now. As it was, he might end up that way yet if some reinforcements didn't get here. He was stone, but not completely indestructible.

Isaac charged back in at the white-and-tan werewolf, striking out with his stone fists. He knew those fists were lethal. He'd enjoyed smashing steel plates and cracking bowling balls those first few weeks of training. But brute strength alone wasn't going to be enough.

Each of his blows could easily break bones, but Isaac had paid close attention in training. Kane could heal wounds in minutes, the curse that enabled him to turn into a beast mending flesh and bone from nearly any injury in seconds. The larger werewolf Isaac faced now was no different. It kept taking punch after punch from him without slowing. That meant he needed to fight smart.

Isaac ducked under a swipe from the long claws of the beast as it counter-attacked. He moved in and drove a foot into the side of the creature's knee. It was weird to use hand-to-hand techniques he'd learned in the SEALs with his stone body, but he was glad the Colonel had insisted the men practice it.

The huge werewolf bellowed in rage and dropped to one knee. Isaac drove his elbow into its snout then slipped around behind it, looping an arm around its neck and putting it in a sleeper hold. The Colonel had drilled into the men that even supernatural creatures often had physiologies similar to wild animals. Maybe he could cut off its air supply.

The werewolf instantly realized what Isaac was up to. It clawed back at him, raking its lethal talons over his face and eyes. Isaac was glad everything was made of stone, or he'd be blind now. As it was, he might have some grooves in his petrified flesh, as impossible as that seemed.

The creature began to buck and try and throw Isaac off its back. It clawed at his hands and arms. Finally, it pushed off from the ground and staggered backwards.

Isaac felt a sudden sense of panic as the creature pushed them both out of the building, right through a plate glass window.