Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4) (12 page)

The tank
was
still
.  A
chunk of
loose
steel fell from the mangled turret.  Kane’s feet kicked up sand as he jogged down the
dune.
H
e slowed
as he drew close
the vehicle
, and kept his M14 aimed at the wide-bodied tank hatch and the rear doors.

He’d never been th
at
close to
a vampire assault tank
before. 
The outer hull was black steel
and bone plate
.  Blood dripped from the rivets, and the chains that dangled from the
sides
were covered in tiny spikes
that
ooz
ed
dark fluid. 
A
small
anti-personnel gun – probably a nail launcher – was pointed
right
at him
.
 
He hadn’t even noticed until he was practically right on top of the tank. 

His heart froze, but when he was still alive a few seconds later he realized he was probably safe.

I
f
any Suckheads
we
re
still
in there they would
have
fired
that thing at me
by now
. 

The
tank
oozed mechanical fluid.  A gaping hole in the hull
billowed
dark fumes. 

The
skiff
flew
up
behind him
and came to a
sudden stop less than a hundred yards away.  Scorch marks marred the face of the desert-tan vessel
.  S
moke churned
from
the lower exhaust ports near the tilting
turbine engines
, which kicked
up the
sand into a
small
dust
storm
.  The curled sails had folded back like a dark fan, and the chainguns mounted on the forecastle still spewed
smoke
.  The recoilless rifle
was
covered with
paintings of
skulls. 

The grey-skinned reptilian crewmen regarded him with haunting yellow eyes
just
visible over the gasmasks
that
cover
ed
the lower halves of their faces
.  T
hey aimed one of the chainguns at him.

“What the hell?
!
”
Kane
shouted.  “I just
did
you
a favor
, you morons!”

They made no response.  It occurred to him they
probably
didn’t speak any human tongue, and that he, as his dad used to say, was
now
well
up Shit Creek without a paddle.

There were five crewmen visible,
and
three of them aim
ed
weapons at him.  One of the riflemen spoke, but whatever came out of his mouth didn’t sound anything at all like language
,
more like
a series
of metallic grunts
. 

Kane put his hands up, but
he
didn’t drop his weapon.  That s
eemed to appease them.  At the very least,
they didn’t shoot him.

“I have no idea who you are
, and I can’t understand
what the hell you’re saying
,”
Kane
said
with a smile
.  “
For all I know you’re telling me how sexy I am.
”

Something exploded inside the tank.  The reptile skiff’s guns swiveled back towards the smoking
vehicle
as the exit hatch
flew
open
. 

A vampire emerged from the wreckage.  It was clothed in pale red armor, wore a jagged metal facemask and dark goggles, and held a bone-rifle.  Kane dove forward and barely dodged a barrage of needles.  The skiff riders hammered
the vampire
with the chaingun and their rifles, but the
undead still
managed to fire back at them even as it was torn apart.  A barrage of eight-inch bone shards rammed into the skiff.  One took a grey-skinned rifleman in the throat and threw him backwards.

Something else emerged from the crash, a bulky and armored shape, four-legged and black.  Its horns glistened with some sort of oily and undoubtedly poisonous substance.  Barbed chains wrapped around the horns and linked into the beast’s iron jaw plating.  Undead nostrils steamed dark fumes as it plowed its way out of the side of the vessel.

“You have
got
to be kidding me…” Kane said.

The undead
Ebonback
stamped its feet.  It was
five-
feet at the shoulder
s
, a tank on legs.  Its dank eyes were rotted and mostly gone, and its flesh was riddled with heavy scars.  Viscous red and black fluid seeped out from
under
sheets of iron that had been fused and hammered into place on its bulky corpse
.  A
dark saddle had been riveted to its back.  The creature exhaled, and a thick cloud of frozen onyx fumes billowed down around its cloven steel feet.

The beast stamped again, and charged
at Kane
.
  He fired his M14, but the bullets bounced harmlessly off the beast’s metal hide. 

Kane turned and ran
towards the skiff
.  Sweat poured down his face, and his heart hammered.  He expected to feel the horn
s
punch through his back at any second
.  F
ear raced down his spine.

The creature was right on him.  Kane threw himself forward and rolled
under
the advancing skiff.  Sand and stone cut into his arms.  The Ebonback collided with the ship and knocked it backwards with a loud clang.  Blood and necrotic fluid gushed out from between its armor plates. 

The skiff floated back and listed to one side.  The beast stumbled, its momentum broken, but he knew it would recover in just a few seconds.

The M14 was empty, so he dropped it and pulled out a grenade as the Ebonback lowered its head and readied to charge at him again.  Cold air filled Kane’s lungs as he breathed in, waiting for his end. 

The horn dipped, and the beast
charged
.  Its thunderous approach shook the ground.  Kane reached behind his back for his combat sword, a short blade with a razor point. 

He saw movement over the ridge. 
H
e didn’t want the others to see him die. 

The beast scooped its head low as it drew close.  Kane darted to the side and rammed the point of his blade into the creature’s eye.  Black blood gushed out and sprayed
onto
his bare arms.  He s
mell
ed
grave rot and turpentine
.

Kane fell backwards as the creature raced
past
him.  He threw the live grenade in
the Ebonback’s
path as he
rolled down the dune and folded himself into a ball.

The grenade
went off
.  Chunks of black steel and meat pummeled the ground. 

“Kane!” Ronan shouted
from over the dune
, but it was too late. 

Something struck him from behind
,
some sort
of
webbing that latched onto hi
m and sent
volts of electricity through his body
.  Kane
cried
out
,
convuls
ed
,
and
blacked out.

Kane woke on his back, staring up
at
the sky.  H
e felt nauseous
,
his stomach was clenched, and his hands were asleep because they’d been
bound tightly behind his back.  There was blood on his face, and his legs
were
twisted uncomfortably
on the metal floor
.

He was moving. 
The world shifted.  He turned
his eyes
from the ic
y
sun
and saw brown stones and low drifts of black sand. 

W
e
’
re close to the coast. 

Jade
was
there
with
him, a
s were
Maur and
Sol
.
A
ll
of them had been
bound
with lengths of chain
secured to
iron
loops
on the deck
of the skiff
. 
T
here was no sign of Ronan.

Kane tried to speak, but his mouth was dry.  His shoulders ached, and he tasted sand on his tongue. 

The skiff moved at a fair pace, especially considering the damage it had suffered
during
the battle.  Smoke churned
from
its aft
end
, but the engine sounded
like
it
r
an
smoothly.

Well that’s a relief
, he thought. 
At least we won’t crash, so we’ll live long enough to find out what these freaks plan to do to us.

“You guys…”  He coughed.  The
scent
of vomit filled his nostrils.  “You guys ok?”

“They have Ronan,” Jade said. 

The skiff
bobbed
up and down as it
hugged a terrain
covered in
cold
dunes and
low
rocky hills.  The
ground was
deep red,
like
blood
had dried
on
the sand
.  Kane smelled salt and rot.  He tried to sit up
,
and failed
.  Dark clouds waited for them over the sea
to the west
.  The atmosphere was cold and
damp
, and his skin was freezing.  He
remained
on
his side – at least
if he
stayed
like that his hands weren’t
crushed beneath
his own weight.

“Interrogation?” he asked.

“Maybe,”
Sol
asked.  “But they don’t seem to understand us anymore than we understand them, so I’m not sure what
the hell
they’d be asking
him
.”

“Any clue as to who
they
are?” Kane asked.

The recoilless rifle had been covered and sec
ured with a tarp, but the chain
guns were manned
and pointed out into the wastes
.  A
pilot stood
at the helm,
which was
just
a simple shaft of metal
covered with
levers
and cranks
.  None of the
crew
paid any
attention
to the prisoners
. 

“They could be Grey Clan,” Jade said quietly.  “No one knows what ever happened to
them
.”

The reptilian crewmen
were
spread out across the uneven deck.  Their
scaly reptilian
flesh
was ic
y
grey and oozed secretion
s
like dirty oil. 
They wore g
as
mask
s
wrapped around
pugnacious
lizard-like
jaw
s
, and
their
eyes were
solid
yellow. 
S
caly
fingers
ended in sharp claws, and
their
bod
ies
w
ere
wrapped
in mismatch
ed
leather and metal armor
.  They carried o
ld-fashioned Colt revolver
s,
razorwire-bound batons th
at sparked with electricity, short serrated knives and bandoliers stuffed with grenades.