Ash (50 page)

‘No,’ she implored. ‘It’s a very old walled garden. I often bring Lewis there. There’s a summerhouse inside,’ she told him, her voice reverting to a whisper. ‘It’s big and it’s strongly built. We might be safe there.’

Ash could have kissed her.

‘Right,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I’m going to smash this one’s head in first, create some chaos. I want you to make a break for the garden as soon as I do.’

He was again aware of Delphine’s reluctance to let him face the wildcats alone. ‘This time I mean it, Delphine. It’s our only chance,’ he told her.

Nodding her head, she squeezed his arm again for reassurance.

Okay, you scrawny bastard
, Ash thought, adding impetus to the blow he was aiming at the cat.
Time to meet your Maker, whatever perverse clown it is!

Yelling loudly, Ash brought the heavy length of wood hard down, trying for the creature’s evil (somehow
grinning
) face, but the beast’s reflexes were acute and it managed to avoid the full force of the blow. Nevertheless, the end hit the wildcat’s shoulder and it squealed as it jumped back a couple of feet in the air.

For a brief moment there was a stillness in the forest, broken only by the injured animal’s mewling. Ash pushed the psychologist and she was off, running wildly through the brush and trees towards the wall she’d glimpsed, hoping one of the four entrances was not too far away.

Then, all was confusion as the other cats launched themselves at the crouched investigator. He used the branch to swat them away, their pained screeches deterring others briefly, but they soon gathered around him again. He took the fight to them, which not only surprised the cats as he’d hoped, but caused several to retreat into the undergrowth, while others had to gather their nerve again.

Swinging the rough staff like a baseball bat, and continuing to shout and yell, Ash caught one mid-air, sending it flying against another blood-crazed savage and amazingly, a skirmish broke out between the two. Many of the wildcats – and there were many more than he’d caught sight of following himself and Delphine earlier – were distracted by the fray and some joined in. He felt a searing pain down his left leg where one cat had darted forward and clawed him all the way down to the top of his boot.

He yelled in pain, but managed to kick the animal away. Another jumped and bit into his upper arm. With his free hand, Ash grabbed the fur on its neck, breaking its hold. It was heavy, but adrenaline had given him extra strength. This was primitive combat. He tossed the cat into its brawling fellow felines, whereupon it immediately joined in the fracas.

Ash quickly realized this was his chance. While many of the animals had become involved in the general melee, the few he was left to face seemed to have become more wary of him. One approached and stood only three feet away from him, its haunches raised, quivering shoulders low to the ground, evil, slanted, yellow eyes looking straight into Ash’s. He could feel its venom, its cunning as it prepared to lunge at him.

The investigator struck first. Taking one step forward, he brought the branch down hard between the beast’s slanted eyes. He felt rather than heard the crunch of the wildcat’s skull splitting, as the reverberation ran up the branch and along his lower arm. The animal dropped instantly, its companions sniffing its corpse, a little more wary of their foe. This two-legged animal was more dangerous than those they had slaughtered and maimed the night before.

The wildcats slowly backed away, but didn’t leave. He saw they were slyly regrouping, and that the skirmish among the other wildcats was dying down.

Then he heard Delphine scream.

The investigator looked in the direction she had fled. She’d got further than he’d thought possible, but now she was bent over, a wildcat clinging to her back, tearing her coat with its claws and using its back legs to try and bring her down. As he watched, another cat jumped onto her shoulder and tried to sink its fangs into her neck. Fortunately, her coat’s thick collar was protecting her, but it wouldn’t be long before they brought her to the ground.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a wildcat springing at him. Holding the branch like a baseball bat, he swiped at the creature while it was still in the air. It flew several feet, tumbling and screeching wildly as it landed on the back of another of its cohort.

Ash felt teeth sink into his lower leg, just above his ankle. This time he held the stout branch vertically and plunged it down into the creature’s exposed head. It dropped to the ground lifeless with hardly a squeal. Surprised, Ash watched as the other wildcats pounced on their prone companion and bit into its unmoving body, tearing out lumps of flesh to chew on.

This was his chance. With one last strike at an advancing cat, knocking it to the ground, Ash bolted after Delphine, leaping over fallen branches as he ran, barely breaking pace. Most of the wildcats sped after him, spreading out between the trees as they did so in a flanking manoeuvre. It was this that gave him an edge, for their instinctive hunters’ ploy made it just a little harder for any of them to get ahead of him. Delphine’s screams forced him to run faster, dodging trees and high brush with a skill he never knew he possessed.

It took only seconds to reach Delphine, who was bent double trying to dislodge one wildcat whose claws were now entangled in her hair. He grabbed the animal under its belly and literally tore it off the terrified psychologist, its claws ripping away some of her hair. He tossed the surprised beast at the tall, brick wall close by, stunning it, then turned on the one still hooked into Delphine’s back, front and back claws raking through her coat and the thin clothing beneath. This time, Ash struck the animal’s arched spine again and again until it could stand the pounding no longer.

Snarling and hissing, the wildcat let go of Delphine and fell to the forest floor. Its spine broken, it dragged itself away on its belly, making small mewling sounds. The semicircle of wildcats waited until their wounded comrade collapsed before pouncing almost as one on the defenceless creature. Easier meat, Ash recognized wryly.

What manner of species were these that they would turn against their own with such brutal, dispassionate savagery? He couldn’t help but wonder if all Scottish wildcats were like this, or if this particular pack – an unusual phenomenon in itself – were influenced by the malign forces that perhaps had drawn them to Comraich. With horror, he watched the defenceless creature as it pitifully tried to crawl away from the frenzied mob, while its companions gorged themselves on its belly and hind legs. These were not just hunters, thought Ash, but were scavengers too.

Delphine was now leaning against him, and he could tell she was hurt, although all tears were gone. He also realized how very close they were to the old stone wall. Walking backwards, taking Delphine with him, and brandishing the tree branch that had served him well as a weapon so far, he whispered to her, never once taking his eyes off the swarming wildcats, ‘Have you found a way inside?’

Several wildcats on the fringes of the teeming mass were beginning to take a renewed interest in them. Their strangely bushy tails were risen and twitching stiffly from side to side.

She replied to him softly, her voice less quavery. ‘I think we can make it. The doorway in the wall on this side is just a bit further along.’ She guided him backwards so that he could keep an eye on their pursuers.

The commotion was dying down and a few of the cats were moving away, obviously content with the meat they’d already consumed. But others were stirring, starting to stalk Ash and Delphine once more.

The investigator’s boots crunched on the gravel.

‘The path goes all the way round the walls, the entrance is midway.’ Delphine was anxiously pulling him along somewhat faster than before.

‘Don’t panic,’ he told her gently. ‘Let them stalk us for a while, but if they break, we break too, okay?’

‘Okay.’

Ash could tell the wildcats were readying themselves to renew their attack. It was as if he had some kind of psychic link with the creatures. Somehow he knew they finally intended to finish the hunt.

He was ready a second or two before the wildcats were.

‘
Run, Delphine!
’ he yelled as the animals began to charge. ‘
Run like hell and don’t look back!
’

For a brief moment it felt as if he’d entered a portal to paradise with the Devil’s own demons at his heels.

Although Ash had no time to ponder the metaphor, the image flashed through his mind nevertheless because the beautifully maintained walled garden was filled with colour, even so late in the season. The contradiction of being chased by snarling, hissing beasts into such a tranquil haven was not lost on him either.

Ash had roared at the cats, challenging them to take him on, pounding the gravelled pathway with the wooden staff to deflect their attention from Delphine. He’d laid some of them out with the makeshift club, but each time he disposed of one, another took its place. Finally, Ash had had no choice but to follow Delphine and hope that she’d managed to reach safety. His arms had grown leaden and the length of wood felt heavier with each strike. Taking one last swat at the horde, he’d run after the psychologist as fast as his tiring legs would allow, the wildcats in close pursuit.

He’d reached the entrance to the walled garden just as the claws of the nearest animal began raking his jeans. Delphine was waiting inside the arched door, holding it open just enough for him to get through. He’d squeezed in, then tried to slam the stout door shut, but the wildcat had managed to get its head into the gap. It screeched in pain, its gaping mouth revealing vicious pointed fangs. Ash turned swiftly and kicked at its head, then used the staff to shove it back out, allowing Delphine finally to close the green-painted door. There was no bolt, but the sturdy old latch would hold off the creatures for a while.

Now he had time to think.

Ash rested his back against the thick wood and felt the fierce but ineffectual thumps as the wildcats threw themselves at it from the other side. His knees were slightly bent from both exhaustion and relief and Delphine slumped into his embrace. He dropped the bloodied tree branch and held her with both arms, quickly scanning the interior of the walled garden. Stone paths skirted the flower borders, cutting through them in neat symmetrical lines. Although his chest was heaving as he gasped for air, he held Delphine tightly, listening to the yowls of the wildcats as they scratched the wood just inches from his head, frantic to get inside and at their prey. He saw three more entrances to the walled garden, one of which was directly opposite them, and another to his left; both of those had doors that were shut, but to his right at the end was a wider entrance with no door at all.

He groaned aloud.

Delphine pulled away so she could see his face.

‘Are you hurt badly, David?’ she asked.

‘No, no,’ he assured her. ‘Just scratches, mainly. I groaned because of
that
.’ He pointed.

‘The main entrance? I hadn’t forgotten. That’s why I said we’d need to hide in the summerhouse.’ She pointed with a shaky finger.

Ash realized that, although his eyes had swept the whole place, he hadn’t properly taken in the large yet elegant pavilion that almost dominated the garden. It looked Victorian. A solid sandstone base supported an intricate, white-painted metal frame and glass panels, all rising to a grand sloping roof and geodesic dome. It resembled a huge, elaborate conservatory or greenhouse as much as a summerhouse.

‘We’re not safe here,’ he said to Delphine. ‘The cats will soon find that opening.’

She nodded in agreement.

Their faces shot upwards when they heard a hissing sound from above. A wildcat had used a nearby tree to reach the top of the wall and was now glaring down at them, spittle drooling from its jaws. It was quickly joined by several of its companions, though all seemed reluctant to make the leap down from the wall. Ash picked up his makeshift cudgel and brandished it in their direction to let the beasts know what they were in for should they do so.

‘Okay,’ Ash said, speaking to Delphine without taking his eyes off the menacing cats, ‘we’re going to walk slowly towards the summerhouse, nice and steady, just like before.’

Ash walked backwards, his club at the ready as Delphine grasped the back of his ripped coat and led him along the path.

The cats remained on top of the wall, watching them.

‘We’re nearly there, David,’ Delphine whispered. Ash noted the tightness in her voice. ‘There’s a side entrance almost in front of me. We don’t have to go all the way round to the front.’

‘Great,’ he said encouragingly. ‘Now, just open the door slowly and—’

From behind him came a gasp. ‘Oh God, David,
it’s locked
.’

His attention momentarily distracted, Ash failed to see the first wildcat positioned to launch itself from the wall, but he was in time to see it run down the path and leap towards them. In an almost reflexive movement, Ash swung the club using both hands and caught the creature’s flank so hard it careered away from them, hit a stanchion of the summerhouse, then dropped to the stone pathway where it squirmed in pain. Ash hoped he had smashed its ribs or spine, but now the others were loping forward – there had to be at least six of them. Several dropped off the wall as they progressed, landing gracefully on the inner path where, without pause, they resumed their fluid chase.

‘The main door!’ Delphine cried. ‘We can get in that way!’

Unless that’s locked too
, Ash thought.

They fled round the corner of the building, the wildcats close on their heels. Ash and Delphine reached the main double door and the psychologist desperately pushed down one of its handles, practically crying out with relief as she found it unlocked.

Ash followed her inside, slamming the door shut just as two cats jumped at them. Mercifully, the glass in the door held fast, though a small crack had appeared in the pane. The pack scratched at the glass, hissing and making a strange, guttural growling sound more like dogs.