Page 81 of No Man's Land

Josef stumbled backwards, breath catching in horror, because all he could see in the pitch-black tunnel was the sepulchral gleam of Alex’s eyes.

Chapter Twenty-four

“They’re here,” Alex said in a voice that was somehow his and yet other.

Josef couldn’t speak. No words would come.

Those eyes, all he could see in the dark was those eyes. They moved closer. Josef stepped back, holding out his free hand to keep Alex away.

“What is it?” Alex’s voice quivered strangely. “You look… You’re afraid.”

Swallowing, Josef said, “Your eyes…”

Another sound drowned his words, the screech of unoiled hinges. The door. Alex’s eyes turned away, and Josef couldn’t see a bloody thing.

He could hear, though, and he could smell as something shuffled through that door. Another pair of ghostly blue eyes turned on him with a throaty hiss.

In the dark, Josef was useless, and that was impossible. Shoving the gun into the waistband of his trousers, he yanked the torch from his coat pocket and switched it on.

Alex hissed, raising an arm against the light.

Arrested halfway through the open door, the ghoul stopped too. It was—or had been—a young soldier, and still wore the vestiges of its uniform, torn and bloody with a gaping, blackened wound in its belly. It snarled, mouth opening to reveal spikes of bloody, inhuman teeth.

Its head moved strangely from side to side, nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air before its gaze fixed on Josef. The initial bright flare of torchlight was dimming noticeably, the beam shaking in his hand.

For a few frozen moments, they stood there in a standoff.

Then the ghoul pounced, launching itself at Josef with a howl. And Alex barrelled into it, rugby-tackling the creature to the ground. They went down in a confusion of limbs, wrestling and rolling on the ground.

“Pin it down!” Josef yelled, dropping the torch, its light skimming across the cold concrete floor. He dove in, trying to grab the creature’s legs and hold it still. Fuck, how the hell were they going to get blood from this thing?

The ghoul stench of rot filled the small passageway, thickening the air until Josef felt he could hardly breathe. His stomach revolted, but he ignored it. Alex had the upper hand now, rolling the creature onto its belly and sitting astride its back. Josef held onto its legs for all he was worth.

In the dim torchlight, the silver blade of a knife gleamed in Alex’s hand. “Give me the vial,” he barked in that strange, not-quite-him voice.

Easier said than done. The ghoul kicked and struggled, and it was all Josef could do to keep hold of its flailing legs.

“Now!” Alex barked. “Come on!”

Cursing, Josef got one arm around both the creature’s shins and reached into his pocket for the glass vial Lottie had given them. Alex had his back to Josef, legs clamped aroundthe ghoul’s back. One of its arms was trapped at its side. The other Alex pinned down with one hand and with a flash of silver stabbed the blade into its flesh.

The creature screamed and bucked, nearly throwing Alex off. But not quite.

“Now!” Alex shouted, holding his hand back behind him. “Give it to me!”

Removing the cork stopper with his teeth, Josef slapped the vial into Alex’s hand.

In the dim light, the ghoul’s blood looked sluggish and black. Alex pressed the vial against the wound in its arm, and the creature’s viscous blood crept into it.

Lying across its legs, Josef fought to keep the ghoul still long enough for Alex to finish. It snarled and hissed and howled, and to Josef’s ears, it sounded like a wolf calling to its pack.

“Hurry up,” he hissed.

“What do you think I’m bloody well doing?”

And then, echoing through the tunnels, came a second howl—an answer to the first. Then a third. A fourth.

Josef’s hair stood on end. “We have to go!”

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