Hellbender - Dana Cameron Page 0,48

me? Anyway, it’s stronger than the old stuff, much more efficient, and even better when it’s injected. We can just use the aerosol until the new doses arrive.”

“Fine, but where are we going to put her? We can’t just leave her out here, and we’re beyond capacity.”

“I have a plan, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it,” she said to the other guard. When we entered an elevator, Penny Halle opened a panel and typed in a code. She shut the door with a smirk.

“Jesus, Penny, we can’t do that. We have to keep her safe. That thing in there . . . Do you know how many men he put in the hospital?”

“I know he’s making my life even harder with a staffing shortage, and I’m gonna give him some eggs for that.” She patted a billy club on her hip. “We’ll dope ’em both up, make everyone’s life easier.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Don’t worry, princess,” she mocked. “It’s all on me.”

I could smell the wrongness of one of the Fellborn before the door opened. My heart shriveled with fear. Helpless against one of those unthinking killing machines . . . It had been very bad, fighting them in Boston.

I heard a growl, and a snarl, then a hiss and a thud. Halle had gassed the other occupant of the room. It was pepper spray, though; he wasn’t Fangborn, of course. More thuds followed, and I assumed that the “eggs” she’d promised the Fellborn for making her life difficult were being administered.

Footsteps, and she grabbed my arm. Not content with the beating she’d just administered to me, Halle and the other guard picked me up and threw me to the floor. I turned my head to avoid eating cement and losing my teeth but still felt a couple of layers of skin rubbed from my face as they were left on the dirty floor.

They were going to leave me here, defenseless against the Fellborn.

The door clanged shut and I struggled to get up.

Far on the other side of the holding area was movement. The smell grew stronger, and I strained to make my body work. My head ached inside and out, and whatever that stuff was they gave me kept me from healing, kept me from being able to Change, kept me from being able to defend myself. I couldn’t shift my bonds, and just sitting up cost me a lot of pain.

Soft padding across the dimly lit room. I could hear the claws tack-tack-tacking on the floor, in that peculiar half-upright gait of the Fellborn. In a moment, he’d be tearing into me.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to close my eyes. That would come soon enough. I turned my head away.

The steps paused about ten feet away from me. I could practically feel its muscles tensing, bunching up, preparing to pounce on me.

A wheezing cough came. Gasping breaths, and clearing of a rough throat. Lots of phlegm.

“So, kid. What are you in for?

Chapter Nine

If I’d had any more screams left in me, I would have used them then. That thing had just talked to me?

I must be hallucinating. That happened sometimes, like when—

“Hey! Cat got your tongue? I said, how’d they get you?”

Growling, rasping, like a four-pack-a-day habit, but unmistakably human speech. The pain I was in was enough to convince me that I was conscious; the hallucination made it clear I was still suffering the effect of the aerosol.

“Got caught trying to impersonate a wolf,” I said, playing along.

“Sweet. Nice to know I’m not locked up with a killer or anything.”

“Well, I’ve done that, too.”

“Shit. Well, don’t try anything with me. You’re not in any shape, by the look of you, and while I’m not at my best, either, I could cross some ethical boundaries of my own.”

“Um, okay.” I tried the obvious. “You’re really talking to me, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m an elaborate hand puppet and Miss Penny out there is a really good ventriloquist. Of course I’m—say. What do you mean? You seem surprised.”

“Well, yeah. Last time I met something—someone like you, it attacked me. Actually, every time I’ve met something like you, it’s been a fight to the death.”

“Jeez, you must have some serious temper.”

“No, I mean it was coming after me. Relentlessly, powerfully, lethally.” It dawned on me. Must be the drugs slowing me down.

“Yeah, kid, I’m just teasing you. Tell me there are no more like me out there, could you? You know, good looking, thoughtful, capable of speech.”

“Trust me when I