Natural Consequences (28 page)

Alex grabbed Jason and heaved him to his feet. The rage in his friend’s eyes frightened him almost as much as the vampire who’d nearly bitten him. “Get out of here!” Alex snarled. “Run!”

A black wave of rushing bodies struck them both just then, knocking Jason to the floor again and carrying Alex away. So many of the vampires rushed in that they tripped one another up, each spoiling another’s potentially fatal blow while Alex heaved himself up on one enemy’s shoulders and hacked at another.

Jason coughed and rolled.
One ‘80s reject lay beside him, stunned by the bullet through his brain. The other had clearly not been so lucky. His head wounds had apparently been enough to do him in, given the mix of ash strewn about within and beside the otherwise empty clothes on the floor. Bjorn lay face-down on the concrete, not beheaded but paralyzed by the hole through his neck.

Amid the closest remains, Jason found a large and unattended gun.

“Jason!” cried Amber as she reached him.

“Just get out of here!” he snapped back as he brought up the Mac-10. He’d never used one before; the closest thing was the semi-auto Uzi he’d rented for half an hour at a shooting range. But he looked to the mass of vampires
mobbing Alex, aimed for a spot just past him, pulled the trigger and sprayed.

The vampires at the back of the crowd jerked and yelped, and some turned back on him with an annoyed look on their faces. Somewhere past that, Jason saw
the flash of Alex’s blade as his friend fought for his life.

L
ights began cutting out with a series of small crashes. Fixtures went dark with the sound of shattered glass. The darkness was incomplete, but the spread of shadows changed the environment for everyone.

Something huge
and furry rushed past Jason and Amber. It crashed into the horde of vampires with a blood-curdling howl. Screams erupted on the other end of the hallway as the vampires who hadn’t charged at Alex found themselves similarly assaulted. Jason and Amber saw another such monster quickly claw its way across the ceiling and drop into the scrum.

More howls filled the broad passageways of the bus tunnel, followed by panicked shouts and screams from the vampires.

Alex hadn’t a hope in hell of survival. Every second he remained alive seemed like a genuine miracle, but even so he did not go unscathed. A knife slid through his thigh. Long nails grown by supernaturally strong hands dug through his robe and his pajama shirt to carve bloody trails in his chest. Someone caught his left wrist, almost crushing it with a merciless grip and nearly yanking his arm out of its socket. Another hand grabbed for his neck; Alex swung his sword up in time to slice off all four fingers, then brought it up again and leveled it to jam the blade into the fanged maw that rushed at his face. He heard gunfire and howls, but it all just intermingled with the chaos threatening to overwhelm him.

He stumbled and fell back. Knives and swords and fangs and fists came at him, all too many for him to fight.

Two of the threatening faces suddenly flew back. Two more twisted and shrieked in agony. Attention turned from Alex. The hand on his arm went limp and then crumbled to ash. He heard screams of pain and panic and saw the vampires fall to fighting something big and menacing that came up from behind them. Several somethings, he realized.

Not all the vampires turned from Alex. A
genuine off-the-rack creation of Hot Topic fashion and lots of hair gel kept coming. He crossed his pair of spike-knuckled trench knives against Alex’s gladius. Alex parried, gave ground and saw nothing but brown fur and muscle behind his opponent. The werewolf broke through the ranks of the other vampires to snatch the faux-Goth boy by the head, its claws piercing his skull before the werewolf tossed him over its shoulder.

The monster
rushed forward. Its head slammed into Alex’s chest to knock him onto his back once again. It loomed over Alex, putting one huge arm down onto the concrete to Alex’s left and then the other to his right with its lips curling back in a predatory snarl.

“Not an improvement,” Alex grunted. His sword flashed up again, cutting straight through the werewolf’s cheek. The monster’s head jerked to the side with the blow. It yelped and batted the sword away, and then suddenly it shrank and the fur disappeared.

Alex found himself pinned to the floor by a naked brunette, who grinned at him despite the blood flowing from a small cut on her cheek. “All the trouble I go through for you,” Diana smiled, “and this is the thanks I get?”

Fighting continued on beyond her. Though clearly outmatched for physical power, the vampires neither fled nor immediately fell to the werewolves’ claws. Many fought back with skill and tenacity. The initial fury of the assault had scattered them and inflicted losses, but
most of the undead rallied and made use of their superior numbers.

“Carlisle!” he heard Wentworth call out from somewhere amid the screams, roars and gunshots. “Do not let Carlisle escape!”

Diana ignored it all. She slid closer over Alex, propped up with her arms fully extended but with her legs and hips sliding up along his. The flow of blood from her cheek didn’t seem to bother her. “Come on,” Diana taunted, “don’t I at least get a thank you kiss?” Her eyes closed and she puckered up her lips.

Alex punched her in the face.

Taking quick advantage of the distraction, Amber patted down the stunned vampire at her feet for ammunition. She and Jason could both see that the fight was by no means over, nor was its outcome certain. “Is this the cavalry?” she shouted as she reloaded.

His Mac-10 had already run dry. Jason’s eyes swept the floor for another weapon, but between the damaged lighting and the rapidly shifting shadows he couldn’t find one in easy reach. Then he spotted a black werewolf, hunched over the ashes and limp clothing of a fallen foe. It turned and eyed them hungrily.

“I’m gonna guess no,” he said.

Amber drew down on it as the monster turned and crept toward them. “I’ll shoot!” she warned, and when it didn’t
back off she did just that. The bullet sank into its muscular shoulder. Though it bled, the werewolf shrugged off the wound. She fired again, this time striking its skull. The monster’s head jerked to one side, but when it turned back she saw little more than a deep, nasty abrasion.

Jason’s mind worked fast. The werewolf was big and bulky up top, but—“Knees!” he blurted, pointing at its thin legs. “Go for the knees!”

She shifted her aim lower. Her first two shots missed, but the third struck the werewolf—not on the knee, but rather in its foot. The thing immediately slipped and fell with a howl of pain.

Jason pushed her to one side. “Go!” he yelled.

They got only a few yards, closing in on Alex and the strange naked woman who lay struggling on top of him before another furry monster rushed into their path. It reared up and let out a mighty roar, its claws extended with clear intent to kill them both.

Amber raised her gun again, looking for a target low on the thing’s body, but its dark fur and the shadows of the tunnel blended too well to make for a clear shot… and then suddenly everything around her
lit up.

The light seemed to literally float down
through the ceiling. It came from a young woman in a revealing white skirt and top. The angel’s broad, white wings were clearly not store-bought. Her tinsel halo was gone, replaced by the genuine article. Rachel hit the floor beside Amber hard enough that Amber felt it.

The
black werewolf came straight at her. Rachel stepped into its lunge and threw her arms around the monster’s head, moving every bit as fast as her opponent. Despite the thing’s massive size and obvious strength, Rachel physically dominated the struggle from the start. Its arms wrapped around her and its claws dug into her sides, shredding her clothes and her skin, but she bore it all with a grimace and remained on her feet. For only a heartbeat, she stood her ground and locked in her hold on the beast. In the next heartbeat, she hooked her hands into opposite sides of its jaw and twisted brutally. The thing’s head swiveled around on its shoulders with a bone-crunching snap. Then it fell limp at her feet.

If her wounds hurt, she gave no sign. She bled, but did not stagger. Rachel looked to Amber and Jason, gesturing to the
largest concentration of brawling monsters. “Watch the rear,” she said to the awed pair. Then she strode on toward Alex and his assailant.

Rachel grabbed a fistful of Diana’s hair. The brunette was too
surprised to react before the angel grunted, “No means
no
, chica.” With that, she hurled the werewolf—using only that same handful of hair—up and over her shoulder and many yards down the subway tunnel. Jason and Amber both ducked reflexively as the naked body flew past.

“Wow, lover, you’re a mess,” Rachel frowned. She knelt beside Alex, put one hand around his head and softly put her lips to his.

The bleeding from his leg and chest slackened rapidly. His arm, nearly wrenched from his shoulder, still hurt but no longer felt useless. Her kiss did little to resolve his emotional turmoil or the chaos of his memories. She simply didn’t have the time to spare for such concerns.

“Rachel?” he gasped.

“Yeah. It’s me.” She pulled him to sit upright, but could offer no further loving care. The angel walked past his companions, who stood guard only a few feet away. “Get ‘em out of here,” she said to Jason with only a quick glance. “Don’t take any chances on what happens here; just get fucking gone. Prob’ly still gonna be some assholes guarding the street exits, so be careful.”

Jason blinked in shock. “You can’t get us out of here yourself?”

“Wish I could,” she said with a shake of her head, “but I’ve got faith in you.” She kept walking.

“What the hell is going on?” Amber demanded.

“I thought you had to protect him!” Jason pressed, pointing back to Alex.

Rachel tossed him a grin over her shoulder. “I do. Check out how I balance my personal and career commitments.”
She reached out into thin air with one hand. Her sword of flame grew from her palm.

Two werewolves
leaped from out of the mob toward Rachel, crossing several yards in a single bound. The first came headlong into a broad slash of her sword. The werewolf caught fire instantly, engulfed from head to toe in the blink of an eye as it fell to the floor.

The other chomped down on Rachel’s sword hand with its jaws. Though not
as strong as Rachel, he was considerably larger and had her off-balance. She wrestled with the thing, trying to get leverage without having to drop her sword. The task quickly became entirely too complicated.

“Fuck it,” she grunted, heaved the thing upright by her mangled arm. The angel punched at her attacker with her free hand, driving her fist up and in against its
torso. Bones snapped audibly and its eyes bulged. Rachel punched again and again with blows so heavy that Amber and Jason could hear them as they landed. In just a few seconds of such treatment, the thing went limp against her. Rachel put her free hand against its nose and pushed upward to pry its jaws loose from her arm before it fell to the floor.

Jason
finally answered Amber’s question: “All this is pretty much exactly what it looks like. C’mon, help me with Alex.” He gave her arm a tug, but didn’t stop to see if she followed. Amber managed a backward step or two but couldn’t turn away from the angel.

Rachel look
ed at the mangled ruin of her forearm. It began to heal as soon as it was free of the werewolf’s mouth, but it hurt like hell just the same. The angel let out an irritable sigh before she turned to face the ongoing battle.

If anyone else noticed the arrival of an angel, she saw no particular concern or change in attitude. Vampires fought werewolves. Werewolves fought vampires. At this point all of the mortal goons the vampires had brought along as servants or extra guns or whatever already
lay dead. Rachel’s eyes swept the grand hallway one more time just to be sure of that. “Nobody here but us freaks,” she grimaced, figuring the three people behind her knew far too much to count as normals anymore. She stepped forward.

“Hey! Assholes!” she shouted. “Knock it off!”

The fighting carried on.

“
Helloooo?
”

A vampire flew through the air, ash trailing out of its shoulder from where its arm had been, and landed just over to Rachel’s left. A werewolf quickly staggered past her in the opposite direction, flailing wildly to get the vampire
off its back. The undead Japanese woman in the silk robe refused to give up, having sunk a pair of daggers into the beast’s shoulder blades and now riding it for dear life.

Rachel couldn’t believe this. Her exasperation drove her to blasphemy. “Motherfuckers, do you
not see
the goddamn
angel
right in front of you?” Then she blinked, rolled her eyes and looked up. “Sorry, sorry,” she muttered.

A sharp, screaming battle cry came at her to herald her next attacker. It happened in an eyeblink; she hardly even got a good look at him. He was pale and Caucasian and dressed in an old tunic over a chain mail shirt, and he charged in with his longsword raised.

Rachel grabbed him by the neck, hoisted him into the air and then slammed him down onto the ground. The impact knocked the rest of his breath out of him. Rachel slammed her foot down on his face, crushing bone and rendering him immobile for the moment. She looked up to see if anyone noticed.