The House (40 page)

Marlow
gestured for us to follow him around the corner at a crouch and we
all clung to the wall again as we went past. There were no weeds
there, the wall was bare brick and the floor was still concrete.
There was, however, paint on the floor to make it look like it was
tiled. I was glad that it was only paint; actual tile would have
made more noise as we walked.

I kept taking
big, deep breaths as I went. There were only a couple of metres to
the door. Only a couple of metres before we would be inside the
warehouse. Before we would be able to see for ourselves what the
screaming was. It made my heart flutter uncomfortably.

I wanted more
than anything for the screaming to stop. It felt like it had been
going on an age, but of course it was still only half a minute
since it had started. Half a minute was still a long time for
screaming. Most people screamed once then cried. It sounded like
the kind of screaming you got from continuously hurting people. I’d
heard enough of it to know.

Marlow edged
the door open and gestured us all through. There was a single
wooden door with no lock and no reinforcement. The door didn’t
entirely fit the frame, which made me think that whoever was here
had replaced it. There should have been a metal door several inches
thick to protect the warehouse. They had been used to store
expensive merchandise before the borders closed and not enough time
had passed to degrade a door like that.

I turned
sideways to fit through without having to open the door further.
Hercules was holding it to let Marlow ahead of us. There was a long
hallway beyond, along what looked to be the whole edge of the
building. There was more peeling paint clinging to the walls. There
were no windows but the hall was lit with low-level energy saving
bulbs along the ceiling. I wondered if they were the originals.
They had been said to last a lifetime.

The only good
thing about the screams was that they pretty much covered whatever
sound we made. James closed the door with a barely audible click
behind us, plunging the hall into near darkness. We couldn’t risk
leaving the door open. I knew that even as I wished there was just
a touch more light in the hall. I hadn’t thought about what being
in the dark would be like. The lights just weren’t bright enough
for normal human vision and even I had to strain my eyes to see
properly. So maybe the lights were the originals and the lifetime
guarantee had run out.

We could see;
we were shifters. It had to be pretty much pitch black before we
couldn’t see anything, but even I preferred the light. I couldn’t
see any detail. I also couldn’t really see any colours. Lions see
much better in the dark than we do, they simply see in black and
white. In fact, human night vision is fairly close to black and
white anyway. I hated seeing everything in shades; it made it
difficult to do anything properly. Everything was silhouettes and
shadows.

The floor
wasn’t concrete anymore. It was soft beneath my shoes which would
absorb our footsteps well; as long as there weren’t any sensors
under the carpeting. I let that thought go. If they had sensors
then they already knew we were here and would come out to deal with
us soon enough. The lack of guards unnerved me. It made me think
that there was something else here instead.

I kept my
power in check very carefully. I didn’t want to accidentally end up
in the mind of the screaming girl. It definitely sounded like a
girl, not a woman. She sounded young and I shivered. No, I didn’t
want to end up in her mind. I would likely start screaming myself
and that would not help us to sneak around. I sent out a silent
prayer that I wouldn’t become a liability as we continued.

We walked
confidently down the corridor. The carpet would hide our steps and
if someone saw us we could hope that they would assume we were just
part of whatever was going on. Assuming they didn’t know everyone
in their group. I didn’t think there were that many of them but we
were following Marlow and he was walking like he owned the place. I
didn’t think I would ever match that kind of confidence, even in my
own home.

There were a
few doors along the length of the hall with very large locks on
them. They had the look of doors not opened in a very long time.
That didn’t stop us being careful of them. We edged past each one
as quietly as we possibly could. Scurrying along behind Marlow.

The second to
last door had a play of lights underneath it. The screams got
louder as we approached and I could hear more of the nuances of the
voice. It was definitely a girl, and she was clearly terrified. I
got a flash of intense pain before I blocked my telepathy again.
Jalas had told me to simply accept and dismiss all the people
around me. I wondered what he’d say about this particular
situation.

There was no
way around except to go through the door. The finality of it was
exciting. More in that ‘I can’t believe how close we are’ way than,
‘I’m really looking forwards to this’ way. Then again, it felt like
my blood burnt hotter every time I thought about the people behind
that door and what they had done to my friends. The intensity of my
hatred for them scared me. I hadn’t even met them yet.

Marlow held
his gloved hand up and counted down his fingers. As he lowered the
last finger he stepped back and gave the door a kick. We could hear
people in the room directly behind the door so there was no point
in trying to be sneaky. All I could do was pray that they didn’t
already know we were there. In other words, all I could do was pray
that they were all complete idiots. It was a good prayer.

I froze for a
second as I went through the door. I kept my head low and my body
as stable as I could make it. We were expecting someone to come at
us at best, or shoot at us at worst. So I stayed low; I was hoping
that if they shot us it would be above my head.

They didn’t
shoot us, for a second nobody did anything. There were cages around
the edge of the room. I couldn’t think of any other word for them.
Rooms with a clear wall to the main room and most of them were
occupied. Some of the occupants were in human form, some in animal,
but I could tell that they were all shifters.

I had a moment
to say, “Oh shit,” before they hit us. They moved so fast I could
barely see them. Vampyre. At least ten of them. All of them running
at us full speed. They didn’t need guns; they were pretty much
invincible all by themselves.

Before I could
really even register if any of ours were in the cages, the first
vampyre hit me. It was akin to what I imagine getting hit by a
train would be like. The vampyre looked like he wouldn’t actually
fit through a normal doorway and every inch was muscled. I could
tell that because he was naked except for his boxer shorts

All of that
dark flesh hit me so hard it sent us both back into the wall. I was
lucky my back hit a second before my head otherwise I would have
passed out. It felt like I had broken every one of my ribs in the
process.

No sooner had
I hit that wall than the vampyre was taking a swing at my head.
Apparently I hadn’t gone down hard enough for him. I ducked, just,
as his fist came at me so that he hit the wall instead of me. The
wall crumbled where his hand impacted but he didn’t even look
grazed. If it had been my head I would have looked like the wall. I
could not allow that male to hit me.

I knew that
vampyre could be imbued with speed and strength to rival a shifter
but I hadn’t known that they could be so much better than a
true-born. We were supposed to have the monopoly on fast and
strong. I didn’t have time to think it through because he was
swinging again. This time I slipped under his arm, there are some
advantages to being short and one of them is that big men tend not
to have trained against someone your height. He was used to
fighting people as tall as him so he wasn’t expecting my move. A
larger person wouldn’t have fit.

I got in a jab
to his kidneys before he changed direction, clipping my shoulder as
he swept his arm back. I noticed that his arm was about the same
width around as my waist before I hit the floor. I sort of caught
myself with my hands but it left me dazed. I was only lucky that
Marlow sent someone flying across the room towards us at that
moment.

My assailant
had to dodge his flying comrade before he could come at me again.
It gave me the time to right myself. I didn’t jump up like they do
in the movies because I’d never done it before, and it seemed like
a bad place to practice new techniques. I didn’t want to shift
because I would lose all of my clothes and therefore weapons.

I really
wanted to go for a weapon but I didn’t have a chance. I’d gotten
halfway to my knife when the guy brought his hands down towards me
and I had to block with both my arms. The shock of the impact
jarred all the way down my arm and through my shoulder. I was
surprised when I didn’t lose feeling in either.

I used my
upwards momentum to push his arms away and went on the offensive. I
did another jab to the same spot as before but I had a better angle
this time. Instead of just bruising him, my hand went into his
flesh. Luckily for me, I missed his ribs which would have cut me to
shreds if I’d broken them. I hadn’t expected my hand to actually
punch through his abdomen so I couldn’t take full advantage, but it
did give him a moment’s pause.

I went to
stamp down on his knee but he moved. I jumped a sweep meant to take
my legs from under me but I landed badly and off balance. He took
the opportunity and smashed his foot straight down on my knee
joint. I felt the joint pop and move in a way that it was never
supposed to. It took a second for the pain to fully register.

I screamed
once then swallowed it. If I went down he would kill me. That was
the only thought in my head at that moment. I had never been a
fighter but I knew that if I didn’t kill him, then he would kill
me. All of my indecision from the journey there vanished and I
moved.

I stayed off
my right leg since it wouldn’t hold my weight but I flowed like
water otherwise. It was like the world slowed down. Vampyre were
not faster than a true-born shifter. They just weren’t. I was going
to remind him of that.

I pushed up
underneath his arms and smacked my hands, palm up, into his jaw. It
pushed his neck back so far it actually snapped. Not that it
stopped the vampyre. There is a reason they are hard to kill. His
spine was still intact so he could function at almost full
capacity. His body didn’t run on chemicals like mine, it was purely
magic that kept him alive. It didn’t matter that his windpipe was
almost crushed against his spine. He didn’t really need to
breathe.

Whilst
snapping his neck didn’t kill him, it did give me time to go for my
knife. I pulled it in a surprisingly fluid motion and stabbed it
point down into his chest. It was the completely wrong angle to
actually reach his heart but I hadn’t trusted myself to change it
in case I dropped the knife.

The blade slid
in between two ribs on the left hand side of his chest. If I had
angled it upwards it would have taken his heart. A spelled knife
through the heart is almost instantly fatal to any being. As it
was, the wound could still kill him but he would have time to take
me with him.

I didn’t have
time to pull the knife free before another flying body pushed my
assailant sideways. I saw his head hit one of the glass walls so
hard that it cracked like an egg. It saved the guy who had been
thrown into him but at least the vampyre that was after me was
dead, or as dead as I could ever hope to manage.

I looked
around me to check on the others. Marlow was fighting at least four
people. They seemed to have wised up and were staying out of
grabbing range though. His punches, like mine had, actually sent
his hands into his opponents. He, however, knew what to do with
that. The injuries would have healed quickly on a vampyre but
Marlow punched into their bodies and pulled. I saw a length of
intestine hanging out of the guy he had thrown into the dark
man.

Hercules had
only one opponent and he was holding his own but I could see he was
tiring. James had two and he was outmatched. I went to help James
before I could find Hunter or Eddie. They weren’t by the main door.
I couldn’t afford the time to think about what had happened to
them.

The screaming
still hadn’t stopped but it was like background noise by then. All
mixed up in the cries of the fight. I hopped over to one of the men
attacking James and gave him a shove that sent him through the
wall. Which was impressive, even by my standards, even if it
wouldn’t kill him. It did what I’d intended. It got his attention
away from James, who I was fairly sure was able to handle one man
on his own.

I really hoped
that we had come to the right place and that our friends were in
the warehouse. I still hadn’t had the time to look in all the cages
and, of course, they could be in one of the rooms off to the sides.
That was where the screams came from, a door to the right of the
room. I had to block out the noise to have any hope of
concentrating.

I had allowed
myself to believe, for a moment, that we would win. That we would
be like avenging heroes and defeat everyone to rescue our friends.
I should have known that real life just doesn’t work like that. We
weren’t in a superhero movie and in real life the bad guys actually
are stronger.

Before I could
move in on the vampyre I’d put through the wall, someone grabbed me
from behind. I tried to turn so I could see who it was but I
couldn’t move anything. I had never been held quite so immobile by
one person. It was beyond unnerving.