03 - Evolution (15 page)

“Yet so much effort was spent to conceal this matter
from me,” the Elder observed, taking another step toward her. “What do
you suppose Viktor had to hide?” His eyes narrowed suspiciously and a
more ominous tone entered his voice. “Or perhaps it is you, Selene, as
the last of your wretched family, who has something to hide?”

What?
She had no idea what
Marcus was referring to.

He gazed down on her like a predator. Thin white lips
peeled back to reveal his sharklike teeth. Exploding into motion, he
lunged at her with bared fangs. She reached for her pistol, but the
Elder was too swift for her. He was upon her in an instant, pinning her
to the ground. She struggled to break free, but his powerful limbs held
her fast. His head reared back like that of a striking cobra, poised to
sink his deadly fangs into her throat.

A burst of automatic gunfire came to her rescue. Marcus
roared in pain as a fusillade of 9mm bullets tore into his face and
neck. Dark blood sprayed from his pallid flesh. He turned angrily toward
the source of the bullets.

Michael stood several feet away, squeezing the trigger
of Selene’s Beretta. His eyes were black with hybrid fury, just like
Marcus’. Sonja’s pendant rested against his chest.

The hail of bullets from the gun blasted Marcus off
Selene. He tumbled backward into the snow, and she scrambled back onto
her feet. Veering right to avoid being tagged by the Beretta’s furious
discharge, she raced to join Michael. Together, they watched in horror
as Marcus rose from the snow and began stalking toward them, against the
scorching gunfire. Blood streamed down his face, but the silver bullets
only slowed him down. Michael’s jaw dropped in amazement.

He’s not just an Elder anymore,
she realized.
He’s a
hybrid
Elder.

“Go!” she shouted.

They turned and rushed through the misty forest. Selene
noticed with alarm that the shadows cloaking the woods were rapidly
lifting as dawn approached. The ceaseless flapping of mighty wings
pursued them as they fled toward nowhere in particular.

Selene wondered what would kill her first, Marcus or the
sunlight?

The empty flat-deck truck came barreling down
the mountain road. Behind the wheel, Ivan Bogrov yawned and tried to
stay awake. He had been driving all night, since dropping off a load of
timber at Piliscsaba, and now he just wanted to make it back to
Szentendre before his exhausted body completely gave out. The sun would
be up soon, and he was sorely in need of a hot shower and several hours
of sack time. He scratched at the itchy gray stubble carpeting his
jowls; a shave wouldn’t hurt either. The snowy road forced to him to
drive slower than he would have liked, but at least he had the road to
himself.

Or so he thought.

Something
dashed in front of
his headlights. Ivan slammed on the brakes, and the truck slid to a stop
atop the icy road. “What the hell?” he blurted in Russian. He had only
glimpsed the figure for a second, but it had looked like a man… sort of.
There was something
wrong
about it, though.
He recalled a fleeting impression of slick, shimmery skin and weird
black eyes.

Maybe I’ve been driving too long
without a break.

Ivan peered through the frosty windshield at the road
ahead. He was fully awake now, his heart pounding. Had he hit… whatever
that was? He couldn’t see over the hood.
I don’t
think
I hit anything.
He hadn’t heard or
felt a collision.
Should I get out of the cab and
check?

He found himself reluctant to venture out of the truck,
and not because of the cold. What if
it
was
still out there? Before he could make up his mind, the driver’s-side
door was yanked open from the outside. The door clanged loudly against
the body of the truck.

Huh?
He spun around in his
seat.

To his surprise, an incredibly sexy woman stood right
outside the cab. Her dark brown hair and glossy black clothes stood in
stark contrast to the virgin snow covering the landscape. The tail of
her coat flapped in the wind, revealing a svelte figure that appeared to
have been poured into skintight black leather. Luscious brown eyes
looked him over.

Ivan’s jaw dropped. His eyes bulged. “What the fuck?”

Not that he was complaining, of course.

“Mind if I drive?” she answered him in Russian.

The trucker ran his eyes up and down her enticing body.
A hot shower and shave were no longer the only things on his mind.
This trip’s definitely perking up,
he
thought. A smirk showed through his stubble.
What
the wife doesn’t know can’t hurt her….

“You can sit on my lap and blow the horn,” he said with
a leer. “How about that?”

Crunch!
A body landed
heavily upon the hood of the truck, yanking his gaze away from the
leather-clad babe at the door. Ivan threw himself backward against his
seat as a monstrous figure glared back at him, crouching atop the hood.
Black eyes and jagged fangs drove all thought of sex from his brain.
Terrified, he looked back at the woman, to confirm that she was seeing
the same thing he was.

This can’t be happening!

Her glowing blue eyes regarded him with amusement. A sly
smile revealed the tips of two sharply pointed canines.

“Maybe next time, sweetheart.”

Wampyr!
Half-remembered folk
tales and horror movies rushed through his mind as he lunged frantically
for the passenger-side door. He shoved the door open and literally threw
himself out of the cab. His heavyset body slammed into the snowy curb,
but he was up and running madly away from the truck before another
moment passed. Abandoning his truck, he bolted east toward the rising
sun. The daylight called out to him like a life buoy to a drowning man.

Please, God!
he prayed.
If you let me get away from these freaks, I swear
I’ll never fuck another hitchhiker again!

Crouching in front of the windshield, Michael
watched the nameless trucker haul ass into the woods.
Poor guy,
he thought, sympathizing with the
panic-stricken driver.
A few nights ago, I would
have reacted the exact same way.

Now he didn’t even look like a member of the same
species. Acting on instinct, Michael had morphed into his hybrid form
during their flight from the winged demon. Beneath his bloodstained
shirt and jacket, his chest had expanded, its muscles bulging with
superhuman power. His skin had taken on a shimmery, iridescent hue. A
mane of wild brown hair framed his bestial features, which were more
human than a werewolf’s, but still unmistakably feral. Bony claws jutted
from his bare hands and feet. The gilded pendant dangled around his
neck.

Without giving the trucker another glance, Selene
clambered into the driver’s seat. “Get in!” she shouted urgently.

Michael started to comply, then something in the sky
behind them caught his attention. His black eyes squinted to get a
better look. Noticing his reaction, Selene glanced back over her
shoulder.

“Oh, shit,” he growled.

Marcus came soaring out of the forest. He dived toward
them, swooping down over the road like a prehistoric bird of prey.

“Hang on!” Selene yelled. She threw the truck into gear
and hit the gas.

The sudden acceleration almost threw Michael off the
hood. Instead he scrambled over the roof of the cab and tumbled into the
open bed at the rear of the truck. An eight-foot-tall wooden fence ran
along both sides of the empty deck.

He rose to his feet and grabbed on to the wall for
support… just as Marcus slammed into him with bone-jarring force. Michael
was thrown backward across the deck, shattering the rear window of the
cab right behind Selene’s head. The sudden impact left him dazed and
seeing stars.

The Elder’s wings contracted into his back. His claws
dug into Michael’s shoulders. He whipped Michael around and hurled him
down onto his back. Marcus pounced on his fallen opponent, bearing down
on Michael like a ton of steel. Hybrid versus hybrid, they grappled upon
the wooden floor of the deck. Marcus’ batlike face was only inches away
from Michael’s slightly more human features. Two pairs of molten black
eyes testified to their kinship.

This thing is actually related to
me?
Michael thought as he fought for his life. He tried to break
the Elder’s grip, but Marcus was far too strong. The Elder’s eyes
widened at the sight of Sonja’s pendant swinging around Michael’s neck.
He let out a high-pitched screech of satisfaction as he snatched the
pendant, snapping its delicate golden chain with a vicious tug. Then he
hit Michael with a backhanded blow that sent the younger hybrid tumbling
over the back of the truck.

At the last minute, Michael grabbed on to the
floorboards with his claws. He dangled precariously over the edge of the
deck, hanging on for dear life. His bare feet hung suspended above the
icy pavement behind the truck. Marcus stood astride the deck, watching
to see if the other hybrid fell.

Selene!
Michael thought
desperately.
Help!

Through the cracked rear window, he saw her looking back
over her shoulder. Keeping one hand on the wheel, she raised her Beretta
and fired back through the window. Shattered glass exploded outward as
she blasted Marcus with round after round of red-hot silver. The Elder
wheeled about angrily as the bullets tore through his undead flesh. The
pendant slipped from his fingers, the sound of it hitting the wooden
floorboards completely lost beneath the noise of the Beretta. The
pendant bounced across the empty deck.

Selene didn’t let up. The relentless barrage drove
Marcus back across the truck’s bed and over the edge. His wings snapped
open, carrying him up and away from the snow-covered asphalt. He growled
furiously as he flapped off into the early-morning murk.

Michael tried to pull himself back up onto the deck.

Is that it?
Selene wondered.
Is he gone?

Glancing in her rearview mirror, she saw Michael hanging
off the end of the truck. Should she stop the vehicle and give him a
chance to climb back into the empty bed? What if Marcus was still after
them? She eased up on the gas, uncertain what to do next. The snowy road
stretched before her, leading to God knew where.

She started to brake, only to spy Marcus diving out of
the sky once more. He flew alongside the truck, directly to her left,
then careened against the driver’s side of the cab, using his
indestructible body as a battering ram. The five-ton truck rocked to one
side as if it had been hit dead-on by a wrecking ball… with wings.

“Shit!” Selene cursed. She struggled to maintain control
of the truck, the ice-slick pavement not making her task any easier. In
the mirror, she glimpsed Michael swinging violently from the end of the
truck. Momentum hammered him into the side of the bed. He scrambled to
get a better grip on the wooden railing.
Hold on,
Michael!
she pleaded with him silently.
Don’t let go!

For a second, she feared that the truck was going to
flip over altogether, but, to her vast relief, the vehicle quickly
righted itself, planting all four wheels back on the road. Looking
ahead, she spotted a tight curve coming fast. She tugged hard on the
wheel, barely making the turn in time. Beyond the bend, she saw a high
rock wall approaching on the passenger’s side of the road. An icy glaze
frosted the craggy granite.

It would be nice if I didn’t run
into that,
she thought. She steered with one hand, keeping the
other hand locked around the grip of her Beretta. She looked about
anxiously for Marcus, having momentarily lost track of the homicidal
Elder.
Where the devil did you fly off to?

A explosion of glass fragments answered her question as
a taloned hand smashed through the cab’s side window. Powerful fingers
closed around her throat, throttling her. Marcus pulled his head and
shoulders into the cab.

“Dead or alive,” he snarled, “you will give me what I
want!”

His jaws opened wide, eager for her flesh and blood.
Not so fast,
she thought, whipping the
Beretta around. She opened fire, sending a round right down his throat.

The blast blew him away from the cab and sent him
spiraling out of control. Gagging, he coughed up a mass of blood and
silver. Selene hoped that would be enough to discourage him permanently,
but she underestimated the Elder’s persistence. His flight path
stabilized and he swooped around the truck to the passenger’s side of
the cab.

Selene got a bead on him and fired off three shots.
Marcus dodged the bullets and she squeezed the trigger again. The gun
made a doleful clicking noise.
Dammit!
she
thought.
I’m out of ammo!

A malevolent grin stretched Marcus’ monstrous visage as
he started to climb into the cab from the passenger’s side. Via the
mirror, Selene saw that Michael was aware of her danger. Grunting
through clenched fangs, he redoubled his efforts to pull himself up into
the truck bed so that he could come to her defense.

She knew he wouldn’t make it in time.

Marcus’ claws reached out for her….

Selene yanked hard on the wheel, swerving to the right.
The speeding truck scraped against the solid rock face, smashing Marcus
between them. He wailed in agony as his back and wings were crushed
against the granite outcropping. Immortal bones snapped like twigs.
Selene rode the rocky wall for at least thirty meters, holding hard on
to the wheel. Sparks flew where the cab’s metal frame scraped against
the stone.

Sorry, Michael,
she thought.
The wild ride threw Michael against the side panels of the truck, but
Marcus had it much worse. Blood gushing from his spinning frame, he
tornadoed down the side of the truck and out the back. This time, his
battered wings did not spare him a nasty landing. He crashed to earth
amidst the snow and gravel, hitting the road headfirst. A cloud of dust
and frozen powder billowed up into the truck’s tail-lights as Marcus
rolled to a stop in the middle of the road. Watching in her mirror,
Selene allowed herself a smile of satisfaction. The mighty Elder looked
like roadkill.