03 - Evolution (29 page)

Not so fast,
Selene thought.
She still had one more trick up her sleeve. Holding up the gilt pendant,
its inner blades fully extended, she stepped toward the depression in
the wall. Marcus’ eyes widened in alarm as he realized what she was up
to. He rushed forward, even in the face of her steady gunfire, but this
time Selene had the advantage. She slammed the key into the lock and
turned it forcefully.
You shouldn’t have left this
behind.

The hidden door slammed down, trapping Marcus inside the
crypt. He threw back his head and howled in frustration. Selene could
hear his angry wail even through the heavy stone.

That’s one brother taken care of,
she thought, reclaiming the pendant from the lock. She thrust the relic
into her boot for safekeeping.
At least for the
present.
She glanced uneasily at the fallen rubble strewn about
the corridor. She couldn’t rule out the possibility that, beneath the
waterline, some of the debris might have landed under the door, keeping
it from closing all the way.
What if Marcus manages
to pry his way out?

Gunfire blared farther down the corridor. Selene
realized that the Cleaners had caught up with William, or maybe it was
the other way around. Tossing the empty shotgun aside, she drew her
pistols. She took off toward the gunfire, with only a single backward
glance at the prison door.

She would have to worry about that later.

The helicopter circled above the castle ruins, awaiting further orders from
Samuel. If necessary, the Lynx could maintain its position for over two
hours before needing to refuel. Of the original team, only the gunner
and the pilot remained aboard.

Not counting the body of Michael Corvin.

The flaps of the open body bag whipped about in the
wind. Michael’s face looked just as inert as before, but deep inside his
chest cavity something miraculous was occurring. Dead cells sparked to
life, dividing and multiplying according to their genetic code.
Fractured ribs reknit themselves. Punctured organs healed. A new heart
blossomed within his body, growing steadily larger. Brain activity
resumed inside his skull.

Intent upon their mission, the two Cleaners didn’t even
notice Michael’s eyelids flicker.

Pistols in hand, Selene sprinted out of the
flooded passageway, retracing her steps through the confusing catacombs.
She reached a junction to two tunnels, not unlike the one they had found
earlier. Maybe it was even the same one; at this point, she couldn’t be
sure.

The gunfire fell silent momentarily, leaving her
uncertain which way to go. Then an Uzi blared somewhere above her.
Looking up, she saw muzzle flashes on the next level up.
How the hell did they get up there?
she
wondered briefly. A barbaric roar greeted the flashing guns. Selene
caught a blur of motion just overhead. A body plummeted toward her.

She jumped out of the way as a Cleaner crashed down onto
the stone floor. The man’s face and chest had been torn to ribbons; she
could tell in a glance that the man was already dead.
At least it’s not Samuel,
she thought,
grateful that the team’s leader might still be alive. It troubled her
that she couldn’t quite remember the Cleaner’s name. Levin maybe, or
Levant.

Three dead humans already. William was making up for
lost time.

Not if I can help it,
she
vowed. Choosing a tunnel at random, she charged into the shadows.

There had to be a staircase around here somewhere!

Inside the sealed crypt, Marcus completed his
transformation. His reddish hair and beard receded into his skull,
leaving his head bald and sickly white. His aquiline nose stretched into
a batlike snout with large, flaring nostrils. His ears flattened against
his skull, while also expanding in size. His skin took on an opalescent
sheen. The furious hybrid banged his claws against the stone door. The
talons on his wings dug angrily at the solid rock. Black eyes flashed
with homicidal rage. He gnashed his fangs and howled like a banshee.

The irony of it all galled his soul. At long last, he
had freed his brother, only to end up trapped inside the very crypt that
had been William’s prison for six centuries. And Selene—that wretched
bitch of a Death Dealer—had the key once more!

He cursed himself for letting her live before.
I should have killed her when I had the chance,
he lamented,
instead of merely sampling her blood.
His impatience to confront his father, and free his brother, had been
his undoing, causing him to leave Selene alive to interfere with his
designs once again.

I shall not make that mistake
again,
he vowed. He was not chained into a sarcophagus like
William. This crypt would not hold him as it had his brother.
I shall find a way out.

And when he did… Viktor’s pet would join her creator in
oblivion.

Selene charged up a narrow stairwell, trying to
reach the upper level as soon as possible. From the sound of it, the
besieged Cleaners needed all the help they could get. By her
calculations, only two commandos were left: Samuel and another soldier.
At this rate, the entire team would be dead before she caught up with
them.

An arched doorway appeared at the top of the steps.
Despite the urgency of the situation, she did not forget her training.
Playing it safe, she inched around the edge of the doorway and
cautiously peered past the threshold. Her twin Walther P99s were poised
and ready.

The flash of a muzzle gave her barely enough warning.
She ducked back behind the stone arch an instant before an eruption of
gunfire that would have taken her head off. Bullets smacked into the
ancient stones across from the portal, sending pulverized granite and
mortar flying.

“Hold it!” she called out. “Fuck!”

The gunfire ceased as quickly as it had begun. “Sorry!”
an embarrassed voice shouted back. Moments later, a sheepish-looking
Cleaner emerged from the shadows. He was a young black man with a shaved
head and clean-cut features. She seemed to recall Samuel calling him
Greenway. The look of relief on his face made it clear that he was happy
to see her. Not a response she often got from mortals. To be honest, she
wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

“Where is he?” she asked tersely, meaning William.

The young Cleaner gestured to the left. “He went through
there.”

Turning her head, she saw Samuel standing on what
appeared to be a primitive bridge composed of thick, fraying ropes and
decrepit wooden planks. Selene admired his courage for actually setting
foot on the ramshackle structure, even as she questioned his wisdom.
Perhaps he figured that, if the bridge could support William’s weight,
it should be able to hold up a couple of humans and one fairly trim
vampire?

Sounds good in theory,
she thought.
It’s the practical application
that gives me pause.

She stepped warily out onto the bridge. It swayed and
creaked beneath her weight, but appeared to hold together, at least for
the time being. She remained on guard, however, ready to leap for safety
at the first hint of a collapse. Unlike the fragile humans, she actually
stood a good chance of surviving should the bridge give out. After all,
she had stepped off tall buildings and cliffs before. What was one shaky
bridge by comparison?

She and Greenway joined Samuel on the bridge. Looking
across the rickety span, she saw that it led to another section of the
ruins. Now that she had reached this upper level, she was able to get a
better picture of the overall layout of the dungeons. Although much of
the underground labyrinth remained shrouded in darkness, there could be
no mistaking the vast dimensions of the castle’s subterranean vaults.
She thought back to all those heavy carts of debris that the workers had
dug out from the earth during the original excavations, all those
centuries ago.

My father created all this?

She peered over the edge of the bridge. The Cleaners’
flashlights picked out details of the level they had left behind, with
its flooded crypts and catacombs. If nothing else, this higher floor
might be substantially drier. She wondered if Marcus was still locked
away in his brother’s prison.

“We think William went this way,” Samuel confirmed.
Together, Selene and the two Cleaners slowly made their way across the
uninspiring bridge. Heavy ropes stretched tautly. The sagging wooden
planks creaked and moaned beneath their feet. Selene winced inwardly at
every sound. William was definitely going to hear them coming.

Selene held her pistols before her, while Samuel and the
other man swept the darkness with the searchlights attached to their
rifles. The two Cleaners gripped their Uzis. Amidst all the rubble and
shadowy recesses, there was no shortage of places for a crafty werewolf
to hide. Selene reminded herself not to underestimate William’s
intelligence. Despite his bestial appearance and appetites, he could not
have eluded Viktor’s Death Dealers for so long if he had not possessed
innate cunning.

More than once, she thought she spotted movement in the
tenebrous gloom, but she couldn’t be sure. Perhaps she had merely
glimpsed a frightened rat or lizard, or maybe it was just a trick of the
light? She didn’t want to waste her precious ammo on anything less than
William himself.

A stretch of worm-eaten wooden planks broke apart
beneath Greenway. Watching out for a werewolf instead, the young Cleaner
was caught completely by surprise. He started to fall through the gap,
but Selene grabbed him and pulled him to safety with superhuman
strength. She steadied him as he regained his footing on a more solid
portion of the bridge. He gave her a grateful look.

“Thanks!” he exclaimed, wiping his brow with the back of
his hand. “That was a close—”

“You all right?” Samuel began.

A tremendous roar cut him off as William charged up
behind him, then bounded onto the bridge from a nearby ledge. His
slashing claws struck out at them almost before Selene and the others
realized what was happening. Muzzle flashes strobed in the darkness as
they opened fire at the attacking beast. In the confusion, Selene saw
William’s jaws take a gory chunk out of Samuel’s throat. His gun fired
wildly, winging Greenway. Blood spouting from the severed arteries, the
leader of the commandos tumbled over the edge of the bridge. Greenway
grunted in pain.

No!
Selene thought.
Everything was happening too quickly!

Greenway was the next to go. He fired wildly at the
unstoppable werewolf, but William’s bloody claws tore open his throat
and chest with a single slash. The wounded Cleaner collapsed onto the
creaking wooden planks, his life’s blood pouring out of him. His body
twitched once, then fell completely still.

In what felt like an instant, the last of the strike
team had been wiped out. Selene suddenly found herself alone with
William on the bridge. The werewolf lunged at her, swiping with his
claws, but Selene dodged the attack by flipping backward through the
open gap in the bridge. William’s claws missed her back by inches.

She landed like a panther on the floor below. Hastily
reloading her guns, she fired up at the creature on the bridge. Silver
bullets erupted from the wooden planks beneath William’s paws. He
recoiled from the stinging silver, retreating into the shadows once
more.

Dammit!
Selene thought. She
would mourn the murdered Cleaners later; right now she took advantage of
William’s disappearance to make sure her Walthers were fully loaded
again.
Too bad Kraven stole the prototype of the
silver-nitrate gun,
she thought.
I could
definitely use that right now.
She stepped out from beneath the
shadow of the bridge and stared up at the level above her, hoping to
catch sight of William. Collapsed stonework and empty ledges helped to
conceal the bloodthirsty werewolf from sight.

Then she caught a break. A loud crash came from above,
sounding like a pile of loose rubble collapsing. Selene zeroed in on the
noise instantly. She caught a suspicious blur of movement and let
William have it with both guns blazing.

Bullets viciously raked the walls, sending shards of
granite flying everywhere. William burst from his hiding place and
scrambled for cover, leaping from ledge to ledge as he defied gravity by
climbing higher and higher up the craggy walls looming over the bridge.
He jumped across the open shaft above Selene’s head, trying to keep one
pounce ahead of her bullets. His preternatural agility was astounding to
behold.

No way!
Selene thought.
You’re not getting away from me!

She rushed across the floor of the dungeon, trying to
catch William in her line of fire. She did her best to keep the heat on
the fleeing werewolf as he scrambled up the wall of the dungeon, frantic
to escape the merciless silver. Automatic firearms were definitely
coming as a shock to the ancient werewolf; swords and crossbows had been
the order of business when last he had faced off against a Death Dealer.
Selene was glad to bring him up to speed, one bullet at a time.

Click. Click.

Selene cursed in frustration as her pistols ran dry.

Afraid of losing her quarry, she kept her eyes locked on
William. She experienced a sudden rush of anxiety as she saw that
William was heading toward the entrance of a dark tunnel tucked away at
the far end of a crumbling ledge.

Had the werewolf found a way out of the ruins? All was
lost if William escaped the castle to spread his wolfen taint throughout
the unsuspecting populace. If Tanis was to be believed, the world would
soon be overrun with rampaging lycans even more rabid and uncontrollable
than the ones Selene was accustomed to. Human society was not remotely
prepared to cope with such an outbreak. Civilization itself might
collapse into a new Dark Age.