Page 69 of Waifs And Strays
I coughed loudly, doing my best to sound like Liam or the vain male druid, but I knew immediately that my attempt wouldn’t fool anyone. Leaping forward before the steel door closed in my face and locked me out for good, I burst into the room with both guns raised.
Liam hadn’t lied. There were three of the bastards left and, as I’d surmised, there was the gaping hole of an escape tunnel behind them. Thankfully, Nick was also there, trussed up on a bed in the far corner. His eyes were closed but there wasn’t timeto confirm whether he was alive because his captors were coming at me.
Although the vampire was my biggest problem, the ogre was my most immediate one. She was huge, even for an ogre; her head brushed the high ceiling and her girth was equally impressive. She was also very quick and she threw herself at me as I entered the room. I emptied both guns in her direction.
The bullets wouldn’t penetrate her thick skin but I wanted to slow down her lumbering progress because she could easily shove me out of the steel door with one hand. If that happened, I’d never get back inside and Nick would be lost forever. I’d caught enough of a glimpse of the complicated mechanism on the inner side of the door to appreciate its strength.
Two bullets smashed into the ogre’s cheek and three hit her chest. She staggered backwards and grunted in pain. With both guns empty, I side-stepped just as the druid, an older man with a bushy white beard, started an incantation.
I moved in the nick of time as fire burst from his hands, and instead of engulfing me the flames smacked into the ogre. That had been a particularly foolish move on the druid’s part because ogres didn’t like fire and it would do far more to slow her down than my bullets had done. It wasn’t what I’d been expecting but I took advantage of the situation.
I jumped, gaining height that even a cat would have been impressed by, and twisted a full circle in mid-air to gain momentum. When I scissor-kicked the ogre and my feet slammed into her chest, she stumbled backwards, lost her footing and crashed to the floor. The old adage was true: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
As I’d planned, she squashed the druid who emitted a squeak of protest before her massive body smothered him. What Ihadn’tplanned was the searing pain that came from forcing my limbs into a manoeuvre I’d not pulled off since mytwenties. I also fell to the floor as bolts of pain flared through my joints. Shit: I’d not been as clever as I’d thought. I kept forgetting I wasn’t the lithe, honed assassin I used to be.
Knowing that the fight was far from over, I tried to heave myself back to my feet but every time I pushed upwards, a shooting pain in my left hip made my leg give away. Three times I tried to stand and three times I collapsed again.
Given my opponents it was a wonder I was still breathing, but when I was finally upright I realised why they hadn’t renewed their attack. Only a small scrap of velvet remained as a testament that the druid had existed. He was still underneath the ogre’s huge body – and the ogre was so heavy that she’d probably killed him.
The reason that the ogre had not continued the battle was because the druid’s fire had continued to attack her even after she’d fallen. Half of her face had been severely burnt, her skin was red raw and several nasty blisters were already forming. She’d squeezed her eyes shut in pain and it looked as if she’d completely lose the sight in her left one. She was probably unaccustomed to being attacked and the hurt was too much for her. She was moaning softly but making no attempt to move.
The vampire was different: he stayed on his feet, watching me through hooded eyes. He didn’t try to help his companions; in fact, he appeared entirely unperturbed by their fate. He adjusted his cuffs and gazed at me calmly. ‘I know who you are,’ he said. ‘You are the landlady.’
As superhero names went it wasn’t the most exciting one but I lifted my chin as if I were proud of it. ‘Yeah,’ I said, with a touch of cat-lady defiance. ‘I am the landlady. Let me guess,’ I said, remembering what I’d overheard upstairs, ‘you’re Brassick.’
The corners of his thin, bloodless mouth quirked upwards. ‘I am. Congratulations.’ He clapped slowly and smiledmirthlessly. ‘Why are you helping the wolves?’ He sounded genuinely interested. ‘They only care about their own.’
‘I’m guessing that’s why you only thought to create defences against werewolves and not someone like me,’ I said drily. The vamp grimaced at his lack of forethought and I half smiled. ‘What can I say?’ I continued. ‘I’m community minded.’ I paused. ‘And it’s just as well since you’re trying to raise a demon.’
I was rewarded with a flicker of surprise. ‘Bravo,’ he murmured. ‘It sounds as if you already have all the answers.’
‘Not all of them. Why the fuck do you think invoking a demon would be a good idea?’
He shrugged. ‘I thought it might be fun and I had nothing better to do.’
I suspected this dick was telling the truth about his motives. I lurched forward, mindful of the shooting pain in my hip. It was time to end this for good and kill the bloodsucker before more damage could be done. Unfortunately, the fanged fucker was a step ahead of me and he was capable of some speedy mid-air leaps himself. He didn’t even twang his hip as he completed them.
I registered what his plan was about a millisecond too late. He sailed towards Nick’s unmoving body and hoisted him up. Nick’s head lolled to one side but finally I could see his chest rising and falling. He was still alive. For now.
Brassick grinned again, revealing his pearly-white fangs. ‘Let’s see exactly how community minded you are,’ he murmured. ‘You can catch me and prevent a demon uprising or,’ he paused for effect, ‘you can save the kid.’
And with that, he raised Nick’s arm to his mouth and ripped his skin with his fangs, making sure that he tore open an artery in the process.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
After Brassick let Nick’s body fall and turned away to flee down the dark tunnel behind him, it occurred to me that he was genuinely curious about what I’d do next. However, I didn’t have a choice: if I went after the vampire now, Nick would certainly die.
While I was concerned about what would happen if Brassick invoked a demon, the winter solstice was still days away and there was plenty of time to track him down again and stop him. There was no time left to help Nick. Besides, Brassick knew I was a landlady but he didn’t know what else I was capable of, even though he must have started to work out at least some of my skills.
I’d completed a fair amount of emergency medical training when I was an assassin, and EEL had required me to update that training on a regular basis – it was surprising how seriously an organisation of assassins took their training modules and employee certification. It might have seemed somewhat idiotic, given that my goal was to kill rather than to save, but I had to know how to deal with wounded bystanders or any injuries of my own. I knew exactly how to deal with Nick’swound, even though he’d doubtless already lost vast amounts of blood over the past few days.
Ignoring the painful spasm in my hip, I spun towards the fallen ogre. Her eyes remained closed and she was wheezing but, despite her severe burns, I was worried that she might try another attack. When I reached for her garish flowery blouse and ripped it away from her body, however, she barely flinched.
‘I know what happens when you pinch the thoracic nerve in an ogre’s shoulder,’ I said as I returned to Nick. ‘Yours is exposed at the moment, so I’d stay down there if I were you. Some of your friends have proved so dedicated to your cause that they were willing to die for it. That might be true of you, too, but I bet you’d rather not experience the sort of pain I can inflict before your soul passes from this world.’
She gave a tiny squeak; she’d heard my threat. Good. I didn’t need to worry about her.
