Hunter (8 page)

Nova aimed
her own gun and fired at Corvus. The blast of energy hit him in the
shoulder. It left a hunk of burned flesh, but before Nova's eyes
the skin began to heal.

Corvus glared
at her. His mouth widened, revealing a bloody smile. Blood poured
onto the floor from the officer at his feet. The man's face became
whiter and the life drained from his eyes.

"Bastard!"
Nova yelled. She squeezed her trigger and fired a volley of shots
at Corvus.

He dove to
the side and avoided the bullets completely.

Officers
collapsed under the weight of the lecheon onslaught. Screams echoed
about the station as bodies fell to the floor. The lecheons moved
so quickly that their bodies were blurs in the darkness. They
darted between the police officers, slaughtering them with sudden
slashes of hidden knives or their vicious teeth.

The officers
with the wooden bullets fired at the shadows, but most of the shots
went wide. The racing lecheons were too fast to pinpoint amid the
chaos.

"Nova, we
can't hold this position!" Briggles yelled. He fired shots at the
lecheon attack, but like most of the bullets they barely slowed the
creatures down.

"Throw the
bags!" Nova bellowed.

Two burly men
ambled from the back of the station carrying plump bags. They
pulled back and hurled the open bags over the heads of the officers
and into the midst of the lecheons. The bags exploded in puffs of
sawdust.

The tiny
specks of wood lifted into the air and floated on the erratic
currents. The dust blew around the room and coated everything,
including the lecheons. Some of the dust was sucked straight into
the lecheon's lungs.

The room
filled with the sounds of choking. Two lecheons bent over double.
Lines of dribble fell from their lips as they coughed and hacked.
They drew in ragged breaths interlaced with pain.

"What has she
done?" Corvus bellowed.

The affected
lecheons were in too much pain to respond. They'd stopped their mad
rampage and had become sitting ducks for the officers. Those with
wooden bullets took careful aim and fired. The two incapacitated
lecheons collapsed, dead.

Briggles
ambled to Nova's side. "That's all the sawdust we could find. It's
about as rare as unicorn piss."

"I know,"
Nova said with gritted teeth.

"What else
can we do? There're still eight of those bastards and now they're
angry."

Nova took a
deep breath.

"Duck!" she
bellowed.

She didn't
have time to check if the officers obeyed her command. She reached
behind and lobbed one of her weapons towards the front of the
station. Most of the lecheons were still gathered in that area,
tearing at the front line of police officers.

The ball
soared through the air, completely unnoticed by the battling
forces. It sailed over the barricades to the area just in front of
the main door. Nova dived to the ground.

A loud bang
echoed around the station followed by cries of agony. Nova lifted
herself from the floor and assessed the situation. Three lecheons
had fallen to the floor. The rest, including Corvus, looked back at
them with confusion. A few officers clasped at wounds but they
would survive, unlike the lecheon victims.

Nova ran to
the closest lecheon with a wooden stake in hand. Toothpicks
protruded out of the creature's body. It writhed on the floor and
cried with pain. The lecheon was male, with dark hair and a bright
red scarf. Pools of blood poured out from the toothpick wounds and
the skin had turned a mottled green. She lifted the stake above her
head and slammed it into the lecheon's chest. He convulsed,
wailing, and crumpled, dead.

"What have
you done?" Corvus yelled, storming towards Nova.

Somehow, he
seemed to have avoided the onslaught, even though scratches covered
his arms .

"Not so good
with wood, huh?" Nova asked grimly.

Corvus looked
around at his fallen comrades. There was only him and four others
left standing.

"What?" He
looked back at Nova with confusion.

"The perfect
weapon: toothpicks. " Nova reached into her pocket and pulled out
another ball of toothpicks wrapped around explosives.

She didn't
have time to act; enraged, Corvus moved too quickly for her eyes to
follow. One moment she was standing with a lethal ball of
toothpicks in her hand, the next she was flying backwards, slamming
into the far wall. By the time she looked up, Corvus was
gone.

CHAPTER TWELVE

"What the hell was that?" Corvus hissed as he ran
through the dark streets.

His coven
spread out behind him as they fled from the restaurant and the
blood and flying shrapnel which had surrounded them.

"She knows
what she's doing," Selene admitted.

Her feet
pounded in time with his on the cold hard concrete. The sound of
them grated at Corvus's eardrums. His own breath wheezed in and out
as he sprinted as fast as he could. The night was dark. The back
alleys they ran down were void of streetlights, yet he saw
everything. A black cat went past in a blur, as did the doorways
and trashcans. They moved too fast for smells to catch up with
them.

Corvus spared
a glance over his shoulder but all he saw were the large reflective
eyes of the rest of his coven. The police couldn't hope to give
chase. Good. The bitch-woman also wasn't behind them, a pity
because he would very much enjoy draining the life out of
her.

"Separate,"
Corvus barked. "Tell the rest of the coven to meet us at the
Helliot."

In response,
members of his coven split off from the main alley. They ran down
side streets or climbed up stairs to get to the roofs. In the blink
of an eye there was just him and Selene. He glanced at her and
nodded. She was adjusting well to leadership.

A prickle
went up Corvus's spine. The cold shiver went from his lower back
all the way up his neck and into the back of his head. Someone was
watching. He kept running as if nothing had changed, but his ears
were straining for any hint. He could hear nothing. He risked
another glance over his shoulder; only the dark laneway spread
behind him.

He adjusted
their course. They darted in and around buildings, over bins and
under stairways. It didn't do any good. The chilling feeling
remained with him. He shook his head and tried to force his mind
away from the presence. There was nothing he could do about it; not
right now.

He and Selene
ran through the night. They ran all the way to their old home,
where his sweet Laticia had died, before doubling back and heading
to the other side of the city. They needed to disguise their
tracks. There were people after them. They had experienced this
before, but for once, these people were dangerous.

The attack on
the police station hadn't gone anything like what he'd planned.
He'd thought they would be an easy target; he'd stroll in, take the
woman, kill a few officers, and be done with it. Instead they'd
been prepared. There was no way he could have foreseen their
weapons. Sawdust and toothpicks? He had no doubt that the
bitch-woman was behind it. Now she was responsible for not just his
dear Laticia's death, but seven of his companions' as
well.

Corvus and
Selene ran along empty streets, blurring in and out of the glow of
street lamps. Corvus's mouth hung open and his sharp teeth glinted
in the moonlight. The black slug pulsated inside his mouth,
shimmering.

Selene looked
good when she was running. The hunched shoulders she normally
sported were gone, revealing her long neck and sleek muscles. The
sight was enough to draw Corvus away from his thoughts, at least
for a few moments.

An hour after
running from the restaurant they came to the front of the large
Helliot hotel. It was one of the classiest on Boullion Five. The
tower rose up into the night sky, lights sparkling. The golden
balconies gleamed amid the darkness and the parking garage was
filled with the most expensive ships money could buy.

"Pamielle and
Gregor are here," Selene said, bowing her head to a dark area at
the left side of the hotel.

"And Winton
and Annabel," Corvus said, nodding to another deep shadow near the
parking bay. He grabbed hold of Selene's hand and walked with her
towards the second pair, deliberately away from Pamielle. Selene's
hand was warm in his when he grasped it and he enjoyed the feel of
it. It would never be the same as Laticia's, but it was better than
nothing.

A few minutes
later the rest of his coven arrived, running from different areas
of the city. They swept into the shadows of the building on silent
feet. Their eyes glinted in the darkness and each of them nodded to
Corvus before taking their place behind him. He looked out at the
hotel lobby. There were lots of cattle out tonight, moving from
place to place. He drew in a deep breath and stepped out of the
shadows.

***

The lecheons
crept single-file to the side door of the hotel. Selene went first;
her eyes scanned every inch of the stairway before she moved up.
The others followed behind. They moved with barely a whisper of
noise, climbing higher into the hotel.

Corvus cursed
the need for secrecy. He would have preferred to burst into the
hotel lobby and feast on every fat meal sitting there. But he
couldn't, not yet at least. These humans were better prepared than
he thought. He needed to get rid of the hunter bitch, and the fat
inspector. After that, he and his coven would own Boullion Five.
Then he wouldn't be reduced to climbing through service stairs like
a common whore. He owned the damned penthouse of this hotel and yet
here he was climbing dusty stairs that smelled like a dead
rat.

There had
been a time when just the sound of his name would have brought
every worker in the hotel to their knees. They used to grovel at
his feet, begging for a favour or a job. He clenched his hands into
fists. Those days would return; he'd make sure of it.

The dark
stairs continued up for what felt like an eternity, even with the
lecheon's fast steps. They leapt the stairs, two or three at a
time. Sometimes they stopped to listen but it was too late at night
for anyone to be using the service stairs.

They climbed
all the way to the very top where a non-descript white door met
them with a single lock. Corvus had seen the door a hundred times.
He lifted his necklace and inserted a thick black key. It clicked
into place and the door swung open.

It moved
silently on well-oiled hinges. Beyond the door lay an empty
corridor. Rich, red carpet lined the floor and every few metres the
walls had been decorated with paintings in expensive gold
frames.

Corvus took
the lead and marched down the opulent corridor. He ignored the
paintings. There were too many memories in them. How many times had
he admired the artwork with Laticia at his side? Now all they held
was pain.

Halfway down
the corridor was another door decorated with a single gold letter:
C.

Corvus took
another key from around his neck and opened the lock. This door
swung open as silently as the first. The lecheons filed inside. The
luxuriant carpet was soft under Corvus's feet and the signature
scent of the room filled his senses. He breathed deeply, it was a
scent he'd requested; flowers with a hint of blood.

As soon as
they were inside the room Corvus went into the clothing generator.
There were thousands of options but he settled on the simple repair
function. After a few seconds his long black coat and the rest of
his clothing was as good as new. He stepped out looking just as he
had before the incident with the police, except for a tiny red line
on his left cheek where a stray toothpick had scratched him as it
sailed passed.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Nova shuffled between the make-shift beds
clustered within the police station. She held out her hand and
helped an injured officer to his feet. He nodded gratefully at her
and staggered to the nearest bed. Doctors and nurses from the
nearby hospital bustled around the wounded officers.

"Thanks for
coming, Cal," Nova said as the robot hovered into the
station.

"I'll do my
best," he said.

On the other
side of the room was a row of white sheets with lifeless lumps
hidden beneath. Red pools of congealed blood dotted the floor of
the police station, creating splashes of colour in the otherwise
white and metal building.

The bodies of
the lecheons were stacked in a storeroom, out of sight. Some
officers kept glancing at the door as if the creatures would come
back to life and leap out at them at any second.

"We lost
seven," Briggles said at Nova's side. "Seven good officers for
seven of theirs."