03 - Evolution (19 page)

Kneeling upon the bed, Tanis was sandwiched between his
avid lovers. The brunette (Grushenka?) pressed her bare breasts against
his back, her moist lips cool against his throat, while he embraced the
blonde in front of him. He fondled the blonde’s succulent ass with both
hands, even as the brunette reached around him to toy with the other
woman’s left breast. Busy fingers teased the straining nipple. The
blonde arched her back in delight.

Blood flowed between them in a continuous three-way
circuit. The brunette drank from Tanis’ neck, while he lapped at the
pulsing throat of the blonde, who fed in turn from the brunette’s left
wrist. Ecstatic groans and whimpers mixed with wet, sucking noises.
Tanis gulped down the blonde’s cold blood with abandon, relishing the
salty taste of the delicious nectar. His tongue swirled the plasma
around the inside of his mouth. For all he knew, it might very well be
his own blood, returning to him via the throbbing veins of the two
vampire women. His eyes eagerly devoured the sight of the blond beauty
lustily sucking on the brunette’s arm. Her wanton desire inflamed his
own.

Drink your fill!
he silently urged her.
There’s enough for all!

Gasping in pleasure, Tanis withdrew his fangs from the
blonde’s neck. He savored the sensation of the brunette nuzzling his
neck, her insistent tongue digging into the open bite, even as the
blonde’s clever hands slowly stroked his engorged cock. His face was
flushed with borrowed blood. His luminous blue eyes were dreamy and
unfocused, like a drug addict’s. He took a deep breath, inhaling the
pungent aroma of blood and sex. His senses were awash in sybaritic
excess. Nothing existed anymore except the banquet of nubile flesh
enveloping him on all sides. His entire world had been distilled down
into the naked limbs wrapped around him and the hungry mouths swallowing
him whole.

He licked his lips, then dived back down for more, this
time sinking his teeth into the blonde’s upturned breast.

Selene drove the Land Rover up to the locked
wooden gate. Aside from the snow, the former monastery looked much as
she remembered. “Take the wheel,” she instructed Michael as she handed
him one of her Berettas. She kept the other pistol for herself as she
hopped out of the SUV. Multiple rounds of silver ammunition had done
little to deter Marcus before, but she still felt better with a gun in
her hand.

Besides, it was always possible that Tanis bore a
grudge.

A rusty padlock sealed the gate. Selene crushed the lock
in her fist, then pushed the massive oak doors open. Her lithe figure
was silhouetted by the Rover’s headlights as she marched through the
gate, carrying the gun. Michael slowly followed her in the SUV, its
wheels rolling over the bumpy terrain. The Rover’s high beams lit the
way before her.

The monastery grounds were a frozen wasteland. Brown
weeds and granite outcroppings sprouted from the rocky soil. A fresh
layer of snow blanketed the ground and boulders. No footprints had
soiled the pristine whiteness. In theory, no one besides Tanis had
walked these grounds for generations. Selene imagined he would be
greatly surprised to receive visitors after all these years.
I wonder, what’s he been doing to pass the time?

She listened carefully for the telltale rustle of
Marcus’ wings, but detected no trace of the mutated Elder’s presence.
BEWARE OF DOGS read a faded metal sign in Russian posted
to one of the gateposts, yet no indignant barks or growls greeted her
arrival. All she heard was the wind whistling through the dying weeds.
The desolate courtyard was as quiet as a graveyard.

Stepping toward the monastery itself, she failed to
notice the electric eye beam in her path.

Beep!

The strident alarm jolted Tanis from his delirious
rapture beneath Olga and Grushenka. A supple breast slipped from his
mouth as he lifted his head in alarm. The mood abruptly broken, he
shoved his lovers aside. The blonde yelped as she tumbled off the bed
onto the cold stone floor. “Wait!” the brunette protested. Fresh blood
was smeared all over her pouty lips. “Come back!”

He ignored his lovers’ cries. Fear instantly snuffed out
his ardor.
Who is it?
he fretted anxiously.
Has the coven learned of my recent illicit
activities?
He shuddered at the thought.
Or
have the damn lycans betrayed me after all?

Snatching up a brocaded silk dressing gown from the
floor, he hurried over to the security monitor on the southern wall. The
mounted video screen clashed sharply with the cellar’s antique
furnishings. He silenced the alarm with the push of a button, then
stared at the monitor. His eyes widened as, to his dismay, he
immediately recognized the silhouetted figure walking ahead of a
slow-moving vehicle.

“Shit!”

She faced the mammoth stone cross, which loomed
impressively before her. Thankfully, the idea that vampires were
repelled by crosses was nothing but a foolish mortal myth, as was the
notion that they required an invitation to enter another’s domicile.
What nonsense,
she thought as she approached
a heavy wooden door built into the base of the cross. She didn’t intend
to ask for Tanis’ permission.

Another padlock guarded the door. She reached for the
lock, only to be interrupted by a faint metallic rumbling whose origin
she could not immediately place. Her muscles tensed beneath the
skintight leather and she raised the Beretta. Senses on edge, she turned
around to look behind her… as a trapdoor suddenly opened beneath her
feet.

Gravity seized her and she plummeted at least sixty feet
onto a hard stone floor. A mortal would have broken a limb or two, but
Selene managed to land more or less nimbly, ending up in a squatting
position upon the floor. The trapdoor snapped shut above her, stranding
her in some sort of subterranean catacomb beneath the monastery.
Flickers of candlelight permeated the tunnel from deeper within the
underground chambers.

Tricky,
she thought with
grudging admiration. Tanis had clearly not been idle during his long
confinement. Picking herself up, she looked around. The trapdoor was a
long, steep climb above her; she could barely see the top of the shaft.
A dead end was at her back. The best way out seemed to be straight
ahead.

An ominous growl sent her adrenaline racing. She knew a
werewolf when she heard one. The growling grew louder as it hurried
toward her. She reached for her gun, but…

“Selene!”

Michael couldn’t believe his eyes. One second she was
standing in the glow of his headlights, the next she dropped completely
out of sight.
Shit!

He slammed on the brakes and threw the car into park. To
his dismay, the Rover’s high beams showed him Selene’s pistol lying on
the ground, only inches from where she had been standing only heartbeats
before.
It must have missed falling through the
trapdoor,
he realized. Not only was Selene missing, she was
unarmed.

I have to find her!
Michael
thought. He gripped his own pistol and turned toward the door… just as an
enormous gray werewolf came lunging from a secret passage beneath a
nearby boulder. A forged metal harness partially concealed the monster’s
bestial face, but there was no mistaking its bloodthirsty intentions.
The beast slammed into the car with so much force that it smashed in the
driver’s door and caused the entire SUV to bounce up off its wheels. The
seismic impact sent Michael flying across the front seats and crashing
headfirst out the passenger’s-side window. Safety glass shattered
against his skull, and the pistol slipped from his fingers, as he was
catapulted out of the car and down a rocky slope.

He tumbled out of control.

Damn!
Selene thought
as she realized the Beretta was missing.

Pounding footsteps filled the death trap as a massive
werewolf charged at her from around a bend in the tunnel. The creature
came at her so fast that she had no time to defend herself before the
werewolf rammed her into the damp limestone wall behind her. Historic
masonry cracked from the force of the collision. The beast’s hot breath
blasted her face, and its bloodthirsty roar thundered in her ears, as it
bared its fangs and opened its jaws wide. Foam dripped from its rubbery
black lips in anticipation of the vampire’s raw flesh.

Selene didn’t give it a chance. In one fluid motion, she
drew a silver-bladed hunting knife from her ankle sheath. Aiming for a
gap in the werewolf’s steel harness, she drove the blade into its skull
all the way up to its hilt. Bright arterial blood sprayed the crumbling
wall behind her.

That’s better,
she thought
coolly. The werewolf collapsed into a lifeless heap at her feet. In
death, the beast reverted to its human form. She regarded the carcass
with satisfaction. Much may have changed in her life over the last few
nights, but if there was one thing she still knew for certain, it was
how to kill lycans.
Nice to know I haven’t lost my
touch.

Looking more closely, she saw that the lycan’s metal
harness and collar were attached to an unbreakable titanium chain
leading deeper into the catacombs.
A werewolf
chained up like a guard dog?
Selene recalled the BEWARE OF
DOGS sign she had glimpsed up above, but was unamused by Tanis’
apparent sense of humor. Then she realized the sign had referred to
dogs.

Plural.

Another roar echoed through the tunnels.

Tumbling pell-mell down the slope, Michael
started transforming before he even reached the bottom of the incline.
Rocks and branches assaulted his skin as it took on an iridescent sheen.
His eyes turned jet-black. His toes and fingers turned into claws.

It was as an inhuman hybrid that he jumped to his feet
once he finally rolled to a stop. He cast aside his constricting winter
jacket and leaped back up the slope. The hood of the Land Rover crumpled
beneath his weight as he bounded over the SUV and into the werewolf on
the other side of the car. The other monster yelped in surprise as he
slammed the creature down onto the frosty ground. Michael barely
recognized the feral rage fueling his attack. Instinct took over as he
surrendered to a primal compulsion to rend and kill. He growled like an
animal.

But the werewolf fought back with lightning reflexes. A
savage claw smacked into Michael’s side, throwing him off his foe. He
crashed against the side of the Land Rover, denting the car’s back
panel, before hitting the ground hard. Pain exploded inside his skull,
causing spots to appear before his eyes. His whole head was ringing.

He shook off the blow. A clattering noise attracted his
notice, and he saw that a steel chain connected the werewolf’s harness
to the secret exit from which the monster had emerged. The heavy links
rattled along the ground beside him.

Seizing the opportunity, Michael grabbed the chain with
both hands. He pulled it taut, yanking the werewolf by the neck. It
growled angrily and snapped at the chain, but its fangs didn’t even
scratch the titanium links.
Hold on, Fido!
Michael thought.
You’re going for a ride!
Calling upon his hybrid strength, he braced himself against the ground
and swung the howling werewolf around by the chain like a giant hammer
throw. The beast’s paws left the earth as it was flung into the Land
Rover’s back driver’s-side window. The glass imploded with a tremendous
crash. The stunned werewolf dropped to the ground. A pitiful whine
emerged from its muzzle.

Michael allowed the monster no time to recover. He
dropped the chain and pounced on the fallen beast. The werewolf squealed
in pain as Michael took hold of the creature’s jaws and forcefully
wrenched them apart. Meat and gristle tore loudly as, tugging with all
his strength, Michael ripped the werewolf’s jaw off. Blood gushed from
the monster’s mutilated face, pooling atop the frozen ground. Violent
convulsions rocked the beast’s shaggy body as its limbs slashed wildly
at the side of the SUV. Then, with a final spasm, it stopped moving.
Bristling black fur retracted into naked human skin as the werewolf
transformed into a dead human body.

About time,
Michael thought.
He stared at the lycan corpse in disbelief. Despite his transformation,
part of him still couldn’t believe that he had killed a full-grown
werewolf with his bare hands. He glanced down at the unattached jaw in
his grip. The lycan’s tongue was still twitching. A gory froth spilled
onto the snow.

He hurled the jaw away in disgust, then checked out the
hidden passageway by the boulder.
I still need to
find Selene,
he reminded himself. Remaining in hybrid form, he
saw that the dead lycan’s chain stretched from a second trapdoor leading
below the grounds of the monastery. He rushed toward the unlit shaft
without hesitation.

Hang on, Selene! I’m coming!

The second roar offered Selene only an instant’s
warning before another chained werewolf came springing at her. It ran
toward her on all fours, closing in fast. Its musky odor filled the
narrow catacomb.

Fortunately, an instant’s warning was all she needed.
With the grace of an acrobat, she leaned back and plucked her hunting
knife from the dead lycan’s skull. Its brains leaked out onto the floor
stones as she spun around and expertly twirled the blade in her hand
before launching it at the charging werewolf with perfect aim. The knife
sliced through the air, missing the beast’s steel harness and
penetrating deep into a moonstruck cobalt eye.

The beast was dead before it even knew it had been hit.
Momentum alone carried the lunging carcass down the tunnel before it
slid to a stop only inches short of Selene’s boots. The dead animal
morphed into a human corpse. She knelt down and quickly retrieved her
blade.