Dark Creations: Hell on Earth (Part 5) (26 page)

“I heard it,” Ryan said.

“I did, too,” Melissa added.

“Me, too,” Alexandra brightened slightly.

More voices called out from beyond the trailer. 

“How many did we lose?” a voice asked.

“Looks like four,” another shouted.

“Who?” she recognized Jack speaking.

“Ace, Mark, Lowell and Pat,” someone listed.

“
Goddammit!” Jack shouted angrily.  “Filthy fucking beasts!”

Melissa stared to the ground sadly.  Though she’d thoroughly disliked Ace, he’d died defending her and her friends.  All the men had died defending their post, each other, and Jack.  Tears welled behind her eyelids and began to stream down her cheeks.

“It’s over, Melissa.  Don’t cry,” she heard Alexandra say softly.  “Jack’s men killed them all.”

Alexandra began walking to the door. 

“Wait,” Melissa called to her, but she did not listen.

“C’mon,” she said and stepped out into the field.

Melissa did not follow Alexandra and the others.  She needed a moment alone.  Alexandra and Daniella had cried from the start.  They’d released their emotions.  But she had not, so much still swelled within her.  The creatures were dead, but now what? 

Sobs racked her body and she set
the gun down on the counter.  She covered her face with her hands and cried.  The image of Ace’s tormented face had been burned into her memory.  Each time she closed her eyes, she saw him, and heard the awful slashing and chomping coming from above.  Each time, her thoughts returned to Gabriel.  Had he suffered the same fate or had the explosion claimed him?  Either was unbearable. 

She dropped her hands from her face and wrapped them around her waist as though she were trying to physically hold herself together.  But only Gabriel would make her whole again.

***

Zogg crouched behind a large decrepit barn.  Huddled against its sagging structure, he struggled to conceive of how such slaughter had occurred.  Surrounding him, bodies of his comrades rested, strewn like refuse across the weed-covered field. 

Anger and remorse joined forces and struck him as one.  His fellow Hunters had deserved better than what had happened to them.  They’d deserved a conquest, a feast, not death.  But death was exactly what they’d received.

Never in his wildest imaginings had he ever foreseen leading his pack to their death, yet he had.  The humans had been ready for them, had somehow prepared for their surprise attack.  He had unwittingly led his brothers into a trap and would never forgive himself.

Emotion gathered in his throat and constricted it.  A soft squeal vibrated in his chest as remorse clutched his heart.  His pack was gone.  He now stood faced with the reality of being the last Hunter.  He was the last of his kind.  And after his failure, the unauthorized catastrophe that resulted in the death of the entire pack, Lord Terzini would never create more.

He hung his head low, shame and resentment burning him,
and started to move from his concealment.  He was about to steal across the grass and out into the woods when a scent floated in the air above the acrid stench of sulfur that gunfire had left behind.  He raised his chin slowly, inhaling the sweet, succulent aroma.  As he did so, an involuntary shudder trembled through him and a small shape came into view. 

A girl, young and petite, stepped from a trailer a short distance from where he waited.  His belly rumbled loudly and his mouth began to fill with saliva.  Despite the overwhelming grief he was feeling, his appetite began to take hold.  Sadness was quickly usurped by hunger.  He wanted nothing more than to bound to the girl and devour her. 

His muscles twitched anxiously as he debated his next move.  All the while, he watched her intently, ravenously.  Her long golden hair glistened in the bright-white light pouring onto the field, framing a delicate, concerned face.  She looked so willowy, so frail, like a gazelle in the wild awaiting butchery.

He felt his midsection begin to catch and contract forcefully
, over and over excitedly.  Then recognition hit him with the weight of a sledgehammer.  He knew the willowy gazelle with the golden hair.  Melissa Martin, her name was Melissa Martin.  Terzini had educated him in the same fashion he had the other members as he was the leader of the Hunters.  He’d been told of Gabriel James, the greatest failure in their history.  His downfall had been a girl.  But not just any girl, it had been Melissa, the girl just yards away from him.  And if Melissa were here, then Gabriel was nearby.

Thoughts of Melissa and Gabriel conjured the potential for redemption.  While he could never resurrect his brothers, he could honor their lives and bring meaning to their deaths if he delivered Melissa and Gabriel.  He imagined Lord Terzini would pardon any wrongdoing, provided Gabriel was the end prize that justified the wrongdoing.  And he wondered, what better bargaining chip for Gabriel’s bounty existed, other than his love, Melissa?  The answer was clear: none.

On impulse, he sprang from the shadows and charged into the open.  He closed the distance between them in just a few short leaps, disregarding the heavily armed men across the property that inspected his fallen pack mates. 

Within seconds, he was on her.  She did not have time to react right away, to cry for help.  He turned his head and seized her waist with his massive jaw.  He felt his teeth begin to break the soft skin of her torso as he twisted his head upright and she howled in a wild panic.  Droplets of her blood trickled into his mouth.  Her wounds were not mortal, of course.  A dead Melissa Martin would be worthless.  Still, the slow trickle was enough to frenzy his senses.  The urge to taste her flesh, to indulge in its sweetness, overpowered him.  The muscles around his jaw quivered dangerously, the need to clamp down overwhelming. 

Saliva spilled from the corners of his mouth, overflowing.  He wrestled with the need to bite, to taste her tender flesh.  He had to continually remind himself that his redemption depended on delivering her to Terzini alive.  Delivering her alive would be his greatest feat.

Zogg looked from side to side before darting toward the woods.  Melissa shouted and thrashed, carrying on, deepening her wounds.  As he was about to disappear into the brush, a shrill voiced pierced his ears.

“Melissa!” a female voice shrieked.  “Help!  Help!  One of those monsters has Melissa!” 

He did not stop and he did not look back.  He dove headlong into the darkness.  He would bring her to T
erzini then learn his fate, if he did not give in to his need first. 

Not feeding on
Melissa Martin would be the most challenging accomplishment of his existence.

Chapter 23

Gabriel cursed under his breath, silently willing his ATV to move faster than the fifty mile per hour maximum speed it had reached.  Though
Taft was safely behind him, he felt anything but safe.  He and the others had managed to escape the town, seemingly unnoticed, but that fact did little to bolster his confidence.  He did not know what else lurked beyond its boundaries, what other monsters Terzini had created. 

He drove along nervously, testing the engine of the vehicle and scanning every bush, tree and shadow for signs of movement.  At any moment, he expected a yellow-eyed demon to spring forth and attack.  His insides buzzed continually, fear and adrenaline working overtime to keep him as vigilant as possible, and for good reason.  He’d had an up-close encounter with a Hunter, had almost been its meal.  Its face was indelibly etched into his memory.  Each time he blinked, he could see the bloodthirsty glint in its eyes, its massive jaw looming above him.  He would not soon forget the feel of its crushing weight resting atop him as it readied itself to strike.  The thought made him shiver involuntarily.  Behind him, Hailey gripped his waist tightly.  Her thin arms trembled, straining to hold on as he maneuvered the ATV around the rocky terrain that edged the lake, and he forced himself to push the horrific images from his mind. 

He inhaled deeply, hoping that the mild evening air would calm him.  But it had the opposite effect.  Laden with the harsh scent of sulfur, the air burned his nostrils and throat.  A gentle breeze worked at moving any remnants of smoke that lingered from the explosion, but had not fully expelled it.  The constant jarring of his body as the ATV navigated the stony land combined with the stench of explosives nauseated him.  But all would be made right again soon, when he saw Melissa.

Melissa was his past, his present and his future.  With her at his side, he could face anything
.  He would be healed, whole again.  He would be able to figure out his next move, how to stop Terzini.  And she waited for him in the distance, just beyond the ridge. 

The engine of the ATV whined and complained as he directed it up and over the final hill.  Ed’s farm came into view and Gabriel felt his heart swell.  He imagined Melissa’s face: her pale, porcelain skin, her green eyes, her plump, pink lips.  Memories of the first time they’d met flashed through his mind’s eye like a film reel and he swore the air around him, filthy and smoky just seconds earlier, had filled with sweet notes of vanilla, caramel and coconut.  In his mind, he saw her sitting beside him in English class, her hair, a curtain of golden brown, shielding her face.  Then when she looked up, his heart had skipped a beat.  It had seemed like a lifetime ago, their first encounter.  Yet time had not diminished its significance, how that one look transformed him.  From the moment he’d seen her, his life had never been the same.  Everything he’d know, the purpose for which he had been designed, had changed.  He had begun to feel for the first time, and had not stopped since. 

The fear and unease he’d been feeling began to seep from him.  Visions of the only woman he’d ever loved drove images of the demon from his mind, and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.  When the wheels of his vehicle began rattling over the gravel driveway that led to the farmhouse, Gabriel felt as if he would burst if he did not see Melissa soon. 

With his heart buoyed, filled with love and excitement, he stared ahead.  To his surprise, he saw that bright light bleached the property and that most of Jack’s men milled about, bent and scrutinizing mounds on the grass.  They were not alone, either.  Alexandra walked among them, as well.  He wished he could speed there, wished he could reach her and ask her where Melissa waited, but no matter how hard he twisted the throttle, the ATV would not go faster. 

He waved to Alexandra.  She saw him, but did not wave back.  She just looked at him with eyes haunted by pain.  The exuberance that had welled within him began to drain.  The look on her face quickly bled him of any positivity he’d been feeling. 

He immediately scanned the property for Melissa, a sinking feeling settling in his belly. As he searched and drew closer, he saw that on either side of him, large, tan-furred bodies littered the grass.  Some were intact.  Others were fragmented. 
Hunters
; he recognized their unmistakable forms.  Dozens of Hunters lay dead.  Jack’s men stooped, looking at fallen Hunters.  Gabriel connected Alexandra’s pained expression with the presence of Hunters.  He began to wonder whether the shock of seeing such beings had caused her to look as she had, or whether something far worse had happened. 

Wonder progressed to worry with little encouragement as he pulled to a stop in front of the barn.  There he saw Daniella, Ryan and Yoshi gathered.  All of them looked upset.  Daniella’s eyes and face were puffy, her makeup streaked from crying.  Ryan looked as if he’d returned from hell and Yoshi’s typically unreadable face looked grief stricken.

“What’s going on here?” Gabriel started to ask them, but was intercepted by Jack.

“Those fucking monsters tried to storm our place,” he said tightly. 

“Is everybody all right?” Gabriel asked and tried to gauge his expression.

“We lost some men, and,” Jack did not finish his sentence.  He stopped and looked at the ground, rolling a clump of hay with his foot as the muscles around his jaw flexed.  His silence hung in the air like fog, thick and grave.

“How many men?” Gabriel asked Jack, the severity of the situation apparent.

“Four are dead, eaten by those things,” Jack replied grimly.  “But there’s one more who’s missing,” he added somberly.  Jacked looked up from the cluster of hay he’d been kicking, and stared directly into Gabriel’s eyes.

“Missing?  Who’s missing?” Gabriel heard himself question, but knew on a level deeper than consciousness that he did not want to hear the answer.

“She’s gone, Gabriel,” Alexandra said and began to cry softly.

“What?  What are you talking about?” he said and searched her eyes, then Jack’s.

Alexandra could barely speak.  “One of those
monsters
grabbed her and took off,” she managed through sobs.

Jack started to talk, but Gabriel could not make out his words.  A
part of him died then and there. Weight, overpowering and devastating, settled deep in his chest, crushing and slaying everything in its wake.  He could not breathe.  His lungs refused to fill and remained frozen, like blocks of ice so cold their chill burned.  He could not speak.  Words had been immobilized, suspended deep in the yawning pit he’d plummeted into.  Voices sounded around him, but they were muddled, distorted, as if he were hearing them from the bottom of an endless sea.