Forged From Ash (38 page)

“That’s right. Come here so I can get a look at ya.”

The twisted man-creature did the only thing that could have surprised Rico at that moment. It backed away. Instead of charging to fight or issue some sort of slobbering challenge to him, he put some distance between himself and the Skinner before letting out a piercing cry that carried farther than any of the howls already ripping through the night.

For a few moments, Rico stood his ground and listened to the grating noise. Then, when other haggard voices responded from the surrounding area, he cursed under his breath and started running straight at the thing that had set the inhuman song into motion. The gnarled human figure cried out as long as it could before squatting and extending its arms to either side as another transformation rippled through his body.

Rico could see the thing’s limbs stretching out and its fingers extending into bony worms capped by wide claws. As soon as he was close enough, the Skinner swung his hand to rake the gauntlet’s spikes across the thing’s chest. It hopped back while shifting into a gangly beast with the lengthy body and legs of a human and arms of a Half Breed. Its head was a stumpy cross of both, and its mouth was wide enough to stretch almost all the way back to its ears.

It came at Rico like a gorilla, loping forward and scraping its knuckles against the ground until it swung at him. Rico tried to fire a shot at it, but his arm was still aching from when he’d been bitten. Healing serum rushed through his system, but it wouldn’t be enough for him to aim and fire properly before the pack leader got to him. Instead of a meaty fist, the strange Half Breed lashed out with claws that sliced through the air and glanced against the Skinner’s battered leather jacket.

“There’s another pack coming this way!” Gary shouted from the truck stop.

When Rico took a swing of his own, the thing in front of him dropped down to let the gauntlet sail over his head. He then lunged forward to wrap its arms around Rico’s legs and pull him to the ground. Expecting an attack similar to what he’d gotten from the rest of the Half Breeds, Rico was surprised by the maneuver and was brought crashing down onto his side. His scars were burning even worse now, telling him that the second wave of Half Breeds was closing in fast. Rico had barely enough time to piece that together before being overwhelmed by the pack’s leader.

Gnarled hands and sharp claws rained down on him to slap against his jacket, pound against his ribs and tear at his face. It was all Rico could do to keep his head tucked in behind his leather collar while bringing his gauntlet up to guard himself. After pulling his knees up closer to his chest, he was able to get his legs beneath the wildly slashing creature and shove it back. The pack leader was only deterred for a moment before he came at Rico again. His lunge was cut short by a right hook from a spiked gauntlet that shredded his cheek and knocked out several pointed teeth.

Although the shooting in and around the truck stop had tapered off somewhat, it was now starting back up again. Unfortunately, more and more of the bullets were landing closer and closer to where Rico was fighting.

“Stop shooting!” Linda shouted from somewhere in Rico’s vicinity. “You’ll hit him!”

“They’re gonna get him anyway!” Gary said.

As Rico scrambled to his feet, he heard another sound coming from the pack’s leader. It started as a whimper of pain after being cracked in the mouth but warbled and rose to a screech before dropping into a series of breathy pants coming from the back of its throat.

Linda screamed at him desperately. “Rico, look out!” But it was too late.

By the time the weird sound faded, Rico and the pack leader were surrounded by four other Half Breeds. The Skinner had faced worse odds, but there were more shapes approaching from the darkness to answer the leader’s call.

“What’s going on, Rico?” Linda asked in an exhausted voice. “What’s happening with these things?”

“Not quite sure yet,” he replied. Rico’s arm was feeling a little better, so he raised his Sig and pointed it at the pack leader. “You spoke before. Tell me what the hell you want.”

The sound of wet crunching came from the leader’s body as his bones rearranged to give him more of a human shape. His fur retracted a little, and the hair on his head flowed out in a greasy wave that stopped a few inches past his shoulders. He stood up as straight as his crooked spine would allow and started his shrieking call one more time. Rico wasn’t sure how many more Half Breeds were close enough to come running, and he didn’t want to find out. Before the cry got any louder, he fired a round from the Sig into the pack leader’s face.

The creature’s head snapped back, flopping at an unnatural angle before snapping forward again like a balloon attached to a stick. There was a visible bullet wound on its left temple, but the damage wasn’t enough to put the pack leader down. Already, muscle and flesh bubbled up to fill the wound and seal it shut. Rather than try his luck again, Rico tucked the pistol into its holster.

“They’re circling around behind us,” Linda warned.

“I know,” Rico said.

“What should we do?”

“Haven’t quite figured that out yet.”

The pack leader growled, “Ssssurrrender.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Beacauuuse,” the pack leader said in a voice that became more human the longer it was used for something other than screaming. “Weee will keep coming.”

Rico shrugged. “I don’t live here. No skin off my ass. All you goddamn dogs will keep coming at us no matter what.”

“We will keep attacking, and all your guns won’t be able to stop us.”

“Looks to me like those guns stopped some of you pretty good.”

“We will pick the meat from all of these humans,” the pack leader snarled. “Or, you can surrender to us, and we will hunt somewhere else.”

“You’ll pick the bones off’a someone else?” Rico asked. “That doesn’t seem like much of a trade.”

“With their kind,” the leader said while nodding toward the Half Breeds surrounding him, “turning into my kind…we can change things.” Although the twisted creature’s words could be understood, its voice was quickly devolving into a scratchy mess. Every couple of syllables, it winced and spat as if the effort of talking was becoming increasingly difficult. Also, the damage Rico had done to its jaw was only partly healed which caused him to slur his words even further. “This pack goes where I tell it to go. It hunts….what I tell it to hunt. We can live…on animals. We can sleep for weeks. The people in my…territory can be left….alone.”

“Seriously?”

The pack leader nodded, its head bobbing in an unsteady line.

“Why should I trust you?” the Skinner asked.

“We…only want to eat. Humans are food….but not….the only food. You are valuable to us. But you must…..come with me…..now.”
After a long pause, Rico said, “What the hell.” He then shrank his gauntlet down, removed it and tossed the weapon to the pack leader.

“What are you doing?” Linda asked.

“Just back off,” Rico told her. “Get behind the fence and tell the others to hold their fire.”

“What? No!”

“I heard the man,” Gary said. “Do what he says, and get back here!”

“That thing is an animal!” Linda shouted. “It’s a damn dog! This is crazy! It just wants to kill him ‘cause he’s a Skinner!”

“Call all these things off, and I’ll come with you,” Rico said.

The pack leader angled his head downward. “I….already have your….weapon.”

“Think you can use that to deflect all the gunfire that’s about to come your way?”

With an upward nod and a huffing grunt, the pack leader got all of the Half Breeds to back away from the fence.

“Go on,” Rico said to Linda. “I won’t be long.”

B
ig Linn didn’t want to go, but she didn’t have many other choices. She made her way toward the truck stop as Half Breeds snarled hungrily at her from almost every side. None of the werewolves made a move beyond that. She looked back at Rico as he held his hands over his head and walked toward the pack leader. As soon as the main gate was in sight, she broke into a run without caring about what might be chasing after her.

“Tell Gary to shoot those damn things, for God’s sake!” she said once she was inside the perimeter and the gate was being pulled shut behind her. The big guy in the Cardinals jersey shrugged helplessly, so Linda shoved past him to run toward the main building.

There was a ladder encased in thick metal hoops on the left front corner of that building. It was a tight squeeze, but Linda was able to fit inside and make the climb up to the roof. Although there were others up there, she ignored most of them and went straight for the man who stood at the farthest edge looking out toward the outside perimeter.

“What are you waiting for?” she snapped. “Shoot those damn things!”

“They’re too far away,” Gary replied. “And we might hit the Skinner.”

“You just wanna let them go to end the fighting.”

“Hell yes, I want the fight to be over!”

She stood toe to toe with him, looking down into his eyes as she snarled, “That’s a chicken shit way to act after what that Skinner just did.”

“He was an animal out there,” Gary said. “So were you. Both of you fought like hell and did a great job. You just haven’t seen the rest of them.”

“The rest of who?”

Gary turned sideways so he could sweep an arm out toward the fence line. “Them,” he said.

It had been tough to see much of anything in the dark when she was on the ground and staring out at a bunch of trees and shadows. Now that she had a higher vantage point, Linda was able to get a wider view of the surrounding area. Starlight and the dim glow of the moon illuminated the rolling Missouri terrain just enough for her to pick out the group of werewolves escorting Rico away from the truck stop. More shapes crept on all sides of the main group. Some moved in small groups and others ran alone, but she’d seen more than enough of the Half Breeds to recognize their lean bodies and quick, jerky movements. There were dozens of them, positioned to swarm the truck stop in a wave, but instead they either paced or moved away while keeping pace with Rico and the pack’s leader. Standing on that rooftop, Linda swore she could hear their combined pants rolling through the air like a tattered whisper.

“All right,” she said quietly so as not to disturb the uneasy silence. “Maybe aggravating them ain’t the way to go, but we need someone to keep an eye on Rico.”

“I’ll do it,” Haley said as she stepped onto the roof after climbing the caged ladder. “That way the rest of you can be ready to cover him.”

“First chance we get, I’ll lead a crew to go out there and get him myself,” Gary promised.

“Damn right you will,” Linda said. “Now get the girl some binoculars.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

R
ico walked alongside the pack leader, keeping his hands at his sides and his head held high. No matter what the leader may have been, the rest of the pack was still Half Breed, closer to wolf than man. They respected strength, and that’s all they saw when they looked at the Skinner.

During the short time they’d been walking, Rico was able to get a better look at what he was dealing with. The pack leader’s skin hung off of him like a dirty sheet; multiple bumps and ridges shifting beneath it as fractured bones moved within. Strands of fur hung from his body in uneven clumps, swaying as he walked. The front portion of his face was flattened into something close to a human skull, but the wide mouth and pointed teeth seemed incapable of shifting any further.

“You got a name?” Rico asked.

The leader was panting along with the rest of his pack but wasn’t about to speak just yet.

“You had plenty to say before,” Rico continued. “You obviously ain’t just a rabid dog like the rest of these things.” When all he got was more panting from the pack leader, he added, “Or maybe you are.”

“Ch…..Caaallll.”

“You got something in your throat?”

“Chaaaaalll. My name….is…”

“Cal?”

“C…Chaal.”

“Why don’t I stick to Cal?” Rico said. “Makes things a whole lot easier.” He stopped so quickly that Cal walked another couple of steps before realizing he was alone.

Turning around, Cal dropped to all fours and shifted into a form that was closer to Half Breed than the walking thing he’d been a moment ago. His head bobbed forward as if he was about to spit something up but as he did, his huffing growls became clearer. The rest of the pack hadn’t stopped moving. Rico still counted four Half Breeds nearby. His scars and ears, however, told him there were many more just out of sight.

“What’s the plan here, Cal?” Rico asked. “You got the upper hand and all that, so just let me know what’s next.”

Cal shuddered and convulsed as he gradually took his vaguely human form once again. “I will honor my deal,” he said in a voice that was just as clear as the growl that had come out of him a few seconds ago.

“You said I was valuable. Valuable to who?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Rico drew the Sig Sauer from under his jacket and pointed it at the pack leader’s head. “Oh, I think it does.”

Angling his head so he could display the matted, scabby bump on the side of his face, Cal brushed one hand against the remnants of his bullet wound and said, “That weapon is nothing to me. Nothing to us.”

“I bet you wouldn’t like another shot from it.”

“We will tear you apart before you fire much more…than that. Now get moving!”

“Then you’d best get started,” Rico said, “because I ain’t about to go any further before we have a little talk.”

Cal squinted and stood mostly upright. He looked over to one of the closest Half Breeds to give it an order in the form of a huffing bark. The creature lowered its chest and stalked forward, licking the shredded remains of its lips while fixing a hungry glare on Rico. The instant it got within a few yards of him, Rico took aim and pulled his trigger. The Sig spat a round through the air that caught the Half Breed in the upper chest. Its impact was enough to stagger the werewolf for a moment, but it came back with anger added to the ever-present hunger in its eyes.