Riverwatch (34 page)

As the two maneuvered, Katelynn was able to get a good look at the man’s face. It was twisted into an expression of utter fury, his flesh so gaunt it appeared to have been stretched across the frame of his bones. Within this mask eyes gleamed with fanatical hatred.

Despite the man’s appearance, Katelynn had no trouble recognizing him.

Hudson Blake.

Katelynn watched as Blake swung his weapon and this time Damon proved to be too slow in getting out of the way. A cry of pain filled the air and blood flowed as the sword opened a long, shallow cut on Damon’s ribs as he leapt to the side in an effort to avoid the blow.

Damon’s frantic attempts to avoid the blade by twisting and turning away from it were preventing him from drawing his revolver, leaving him all but defenseless against the attack.

Katelynn knew she and Sam had to do something quickly to help.

She glanced around frantically, looking for a weapon, and spotted Damon’s rifle lying against the roof’s parapet.

She went after it, knowing she had only seconds before Blake tired of the game and skewered Damon.

Sam watched as Blake suddenly switched tactics and thrust his weapon point first at Damon. A cry of pain quickly followed and Sam watched in horror as Damon collapsed onto the rooftop.

The blade of Blake’s sword glistened.

Katelynn swung the rifle in Blake’s direction, her hands unfamiliar on the stock.

The old man was faster than either she or Sam could have ever expected.

He was there in front of her in what seemed like the blink of an eye, his own weapon swinging through the air and colliding with the barrel of the gun just as she got it pointed in his direction.

The force of the blow carried the rifle up and out of Katelynn’s hands. From several feet away Sam watched in dismay as the rifle went over her shoulder, disappearing into the darkness on the other side of the parapet, no doubt headed swiftly for the ground far below.

A wide smile crossed Blake’s face then and he raised his sword for another strike at Katelynn.

"No!" Sam screamed, suddenly entering the fray by hurling himself directly into Blake.

Sam struck Blake just below his upraised arms, knocking him off balance. Somewhere in the back of Sam’s mind he registered the clang as the madman’s sword struck the stone beneath their feet instead of Katelynn’s tender flesh.

With Blake locked in his embrace, Sam slammed bodily against the rooftop.

He landed badly, striking his head against the stone. Dazed, he could not summon the strength to prevent Blake from rolling them over, trapping Sam on the bottom.

Somehow Blake had retained his grip on his sword throughout the struggle and Sam looked up as Blake raised the weapon over his head, the pommel gripped securely in both of the old man’s hands, the sword ready for a sharp downward thrust to finish Sam off.

Oh, fuck, Sam thought, too tired and dazed to offer any resistance.

Two shots rang out and something hot and sticky splashed across Sam’s face, blinding him momentarily.

Seconds later Blake collapsed onto Sam, the sword falling from his grasp to clatter on the stone beside him.

Katelynn was suddenly at Sam’s side, wiping the blood out of his eyes so that he could see. He turned his head and saw Damon crouched a few yards away, one hand holding tight to the bleeding wound Blake’s sword had caused in his side, the other still holding the pistol with which he had just shot Blake. The pistol’s muzzle was held rock steady, not wavering from the old man’s body as Damon waited a moment to be certain he was out of the fight.

When it looked like Blake was not going to get up again, Damon rose from his crouch and walked over to them.

Katelynn helped Sam get out from under the body, glad the man’s head was partially hidden by his arms so that she wouldn’t have to look at what must be a gaping wound in the middle of his face where Damon had shot him. They stood up just as Damon reached them.

"You two okay?" the Sheriff asked.

Katelynn nodded, as did Sam. He was still a bit surprised to find himself alive and didn’t trust himself to speak.

"How badly are you hurt?" Katelynn asked Damon.

He grimaced with pain as he moved, but said simply, "I’ll make it," and changed the subject. "We’d better check on the status of our weapons."

Katelynn’s warning had allowed Damon an extra second to set his knapsack down on the rooftop before Blake’s charge had reached them, so the bottles of homemade napalm inside were still secure. Those inside Sam’s pack had been less fortunate; he’d been wearing the pack strapped across his back when he crashed into Blake and the resulting fall had broken them all.

"Why don’t you take this, Sam?" Damon said, holding out the pack to him. "That way my hands will be free."

Realizing Damon’s pistol was their only means of defense now that the rifle was gone, Sam didn’t disagree. He slung Damon’s pack loosely over one shoulder then they headed across the rooftop.

Damon moved slower than the others and was therefore a step or two behind them when they reached to door to the tower and stepped inside.

Damon called out to tell them to wait, but the heavy iron door suddenly swung shut in his face seemingly of its own accord, cutting him off from the others.

No sooner had it done so than a loud cry of surprise and fear reached his ears from the other side of the door.

The sound galvanized Damon.

He yanked open the door and moved quickly inside the room, his pistol held out before him and the pain in his side momentarily forgotten.

On the opposite side of the room the Nightshade stood waiting.

Chapter Forty-one: Illusions

Katelynn and Sam were nowhere in sight.

The room was empty, except for the Nightshade.

Damon stared at it, taking in the details. It seemed larger than before, but that could have been a result of his fear.

The beast caught his gaze and stared back.

Damon could see the cold gleam of intelligence and hatred shining forth from those yellow eyes.

The room spun for a moment, and Damon swayed dizzily in response, his grip instinctively tightening on his weapon lest he lose it. He briskly shook his head, trying to shake off the feeling, and then looked across the room to assure himself of the beast’s position.

To his horror, two other Nightshades had joined the first.

As he watched, the beasts began to spread out around him, moving swiftly in an attempt to cut off his retreat.

Damon glanced swiftly around, trying to keep all of them in sight at the same time, aware that if they rushed him, he wouldn’t be able to defend himself. He couldn’t cover all sides, and when he turned to deal with one, another would try to close in on him from behind.

Where the hell are Sam and Katelynn? he thought. They’d come in only seconds before him, and he hadn’t hesitated when he’d heard Katelynn’s cry. Could the beasts have taken them so swiftly?

Yet, there were no bodies, no blood. Except for Katelynn’s cry, there hadn’t even been sounds of a struggle.

So where in hell were they?

One of the beasts took a step forward, forcing Damon to turn toward it to cover the threat, and behind him he heard an answering scrape of claws on stone as another of the creatures took that opportunity to advance a little closer to his back.

Damon swiftly turned to face this new threat, his heart hammering wildly. Other than the door through which he’d entered, now guarded by one of the beasts, the only other way out was directly opposite him on the other side of the room.

Unfortunately, he’d have to go through three of the beasts to reach it.

A thought struck him. Could Sam and Katelynn have already gone through the other door?

Damon estimated the distance from where he stood to the door to be about thirty feet. Maybe they had already passed through the other door before the Nightshades had decided to show themselves, and Katelynn’s cry had not been cut off by an attack but rather by the slamming of the heavy wooden door as it swung shut behind them.

Movement to his left forced him to spin in that direction and he was forced to put the others out of his mind.

As he twisted around, doing what he could to keep them all in sight, Damon considered rushing the beast behind him and getting back out onto the rooftop, then just as quickly dismissed the idea. He would be leaving the others completely at the mercy of these beasts, and he wasn’t about to abandon them if there was even a chance that they were still alive.

His decision meant he was going to have to not only hold the creatures at bay but also destroy them somehow in the process.

He just wished he knew how.

*** ***

Katelynn didn’t understand what was happening.

When she and Sam had entered the room and found the Nightshade waiting for them, she’d let out a not altogether involuntary cry of surprise, which had served to bring Damon rushing into the room behind them.

From there, everything stopped making sense.

Damon had stepped into the room, gotten maybe ten feet past the door, and had frozen in place, staring at the beast in what appeared to be dread fascination. Expecting him to start shooting, she and Sam had moved off to Damon’s right, out of the line of fire.

Damon had done nothing.

He’d simply stood there, staring, his mouth open in astonishment.

This had gone on for a moment or two when Katelynn decided she had to do something.

So far, the Nightshade had ignored the two of them, its attention transfixed on Damon. Katelynn thought it had recognized the pistol in Damon’s hands as a weapon, and had decided that he was the obvious, immediate threat. While Sam was armed, nothing he carried could be immediately identified as such, and Katelynn’s hands were empty.

It seemed the beast had written them off for the time being.

She called out to Damon, trying to get his attention off the beast, which obviously had some sort of hold over him.

Damon either did not hear her, or chose not to acknowledge that he had.

Sam added his voice to her’s, and although the creature flicked its ears in their direction it did not move or shift its gaze from Damon’s form.

Katelynn broke from Sam’s side and headed into the center of the room, not yet knowing exactly what she intended to do but knowing she had to do something.

Damon must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned in her direction.

And pointed his pistol directly at her.

*** ***

Damon caught motion out of the corner of his eye and turned to the right to meet this new threat. One of the smaller Nightshades that had up until now kept against the wall was coming toward him. He didn’t want any of these things anywhere near striking distance. Despite this one’s small size, there was still no question that its claws were as razor sharp as the others.

Damon took a step or two backward to widen the distance between them, keeping his target squarely in his sights.

*** ***

Katelynn stopped in mid-stride, one foot still raised in the air, as she saw Damon raise his pistol and point it in her direction. This close, the barrel of the gun seemed impossibly wide, and she could almost believe she could look down its length to see the bullet inside.

From the glazed look in Damon’s eyes, Katelynn knew he was not seeing her. His lack of response to her earlier cries suddenly made sense as she realized he was seeing something else, some phantom in his mind that the Nightshade must have conjured forth. That Damon perceived her as a threat was not in doubt; the hand holding the pistol on her didn’t waver an inch. Katelynn slowly put her foot down, and tried to decide what to do.

She looked up, tearing her gaze away from the gun, and searched Damon’s face for any sign of recognition.

There wasn’t any.

She saw only hatred and fear.

In that moment, things went from bad to worse.

From where she stood, Katelynn watched in horror as the doorway behind Damon suddenly filled with a human form. One side of the man’s face was a devastated ruin, the left eye mangled beyond recognition from the bullet that had torn through that side of his face. Blood flowed freely from the wound, mixing with the steady flow that poured out of a similar wound in the man’s upper chest. Despite the injuries, his stance was firm, his smile grim, and in his hands he held the English long sword.

In the next instant, Hudson Blake extended the sword directly before him and charged at Damon!

*** ***

Damon saw the beast’s gaze flick past his shoulder and knew in that instant that he’d been trapped. Determined to at least cause some damage before dying, Damon ignored the motion behind him for a second, just long enough to squeeze off a shot at the creature in front of him.

A sharp, cold numbness pierced his back as he pulled the trigger. He watched as the beast before him was thrown backward by the force of the shot, but knew instinctively that he hadn’t hit it in any particularly vital area, the attack from behind having spoiled his aim.

Then a nova-hot blaze of pain surged up from his stomach and caused him to glance down in shock, only to discover half a foot of cold steel protruding from an area just left of his navel. Blood pumped from the wound in a surging, crimson tide and Damon knew his time had just run out.

So be it.

At least he’d take some of them with him.

His gaze fell on the form on the floor in front of him, and he blinked his eyes in shocked disbelief. That wave of chestnut hair, that long limbed form was unmistakable, and in a corner of his pain-filled mind Damon found himself wondering how he could ever have mistaken Katelynn for a Nightshade. Whoever was wielding the sword chose that moment to yank it violently from his body. He dimly heard the clatter of his gun striking the floor in front of him, and Damon felt the world around him spin as he slipped into a darkness deeper than night.

*** ***

Katelynn found herself lying on her stomach, gazing at the floor in dazed bewilderment. She was aware of a sharp pain radiating up from her leg, reminding her of what had just occurred. Blake’s attack had spoiled Damon’s aim, so she had taken the bullet in the leg instead of the chest. The force of the blow had knocked her off her feet.