Chapter Forty – Luke

 

Not everyone runs the opposite way against a crowd when the panic starts. Normally, it’s the police, firefighters, soldiers, or medical professionals, the people who are trained to deal with emergencies when they arise. I’ve never blamed people for trying to get away from danger, or trying to flee to make sure they’re safe. It’s not a matter of courage, or of fear. It’s one of competence. And these people, they didn’t have either the training or the competence to deal with any of it.

All around me, half-naked and fully nude men and women came rushing down the hall, their faces wild and full of fear beneath their ballroom masks as they fled from the darkened, black common area. Sweat from sex and exertion had turned to the foul smell of terror, stuffing my nose with its sour scent as they brushed past me. Lamps and ceiling lights flickered behind them, flashes of semi-strobing light like camera flashes fluttering away.

Right now, even I was terrified. Adrenaline’s icy grip had ensnared my stomach, had twisted itself tightly around my guts, and begun to squeeze. But I kept moving, my sidearm low and pointed at the ground as the stragglers jostled past me. I held the flashlight in my other hand, the beam clicked off.

A dark form, a sentient splotch of ink against the room’s flashing light, lumbered into view, three scarlet red eyes glaring out at me from the shadows.

I gritted my teeth as I came to a stop at the edge of the hallway lights. I clenched my jaw as I narrowed my own eyes, meeting its three with my two.

This was it.

“You come running like such a good shifter,” it growled, moving sideways a little. One of its massive paws crunched down into a still warm corpse, the bones snapping as it seemed to deliberately grind its step.

“Yeah? You came skulking just like a fucking dog,” I growled right back, nervously gripping the pistol more tightly. I’d felt the strength in its limbs when it had lured me down into the sewer, felt how effortlessly it could throw me around. This thing was bigger, faster, and meaner than I was. And we both knew it. “Attacking innocent victims from the shadows. How’s that eye? That healing up for you yet? Oh, right, I shot it with silver.”

“Are you prepared to move to the next world with these humans?” the capcaun asked, baring its fangs in a wide, toothy grin. “Or will you run like the rest?”

“What do you think?”

“I think you’re stupid, even for a shifter.”

I brought my sidearm up before it even finished speaking, firing three shots right at its center of mass. My pistol roared, rattling the windows.

The capcaun was too fast, though. My bullets penetrated the window behind it, leaving three tightly grouped holes that brought the glass down like a waterfall. Like black lightning, it was moving through the air, launching itself against the far wall, its giant claws digging into the surface as it scrambled towards me through the dark like some kind of giant arachnid.

Trying to keep it in my sights, I spun towards it, backtracking and sidestepping at an angle as the creature tore across the surface of the wall. I fired twice more, but only smacked holes in the wall behind it as it came leaping down to the floor.

The capcaun came barreling at me, its three eyes ablaze.

One-handed, I fired off three shots. All three tore black ichor from its body, its weird blood splattering the already dark room even darker.

But it kept coming, barely slowed.

I rolled back over a couch, trying to put some distance between me and the thing, but it just batted the couch away like an angry bear as I kept moving, reducing the gap between us.

“Shit, shit, shit!” I fired two more shots.

Nothing. It didn’t even flinch, just roared loudly enough to send lights back down both hallways flickering. Suddenly, it was on me, lifting me up to the ceiling, its claws digging into my sides.

Agony tore through my body as my insides were compressed, what felt like two of my ribs snapping like twigs beneath its strength. I kicked against it, trying to push myself away and out of its steely grip, but nothing seemed to move it. I was like an ant trying to fight a human. I might be strong for my size, but the capcaun was just too big, too fast.

Smiling cruelly, it slammed me upwards, cratering the ceiling around me.

This was it. This was all I had. I could change, but the creature had me in its claws already. No matter how fast I went, I’d still be helpless against this thing’s strength. It could just rip me in two, something my supernatural healing would never be able to fix before I died.

It slammed me upwards again, knocking the breath again from my lungs.

“It’s over, shifter,” the capcaun said, its voice a growling hiss that sent its rotting grave-breath flowing over me. “Surrender yourself, so I may feast as well as my master.”

Fuck. He was right. My bullets were useless, and I was too weak. This was it.

Until I heard Molly scream.