Best New Werewolf Tales (Vol. 1) (20 page)

Jan looked out to where the gathering dark fed on a dying day. “I live here because they don’t. I don’t hunt them anymore. I got someone killed, Kate. Someone who trusted me.”

Kate bit her lip. “I’m sorry,” she said. They sat silent for a moment, then she gave a small smile. “Anybody could understand why you’d want to get away from those things.”

Jan looked back to her. “I wonder if I have.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every civilization has had shape-shifter legends. I’ve always wondered why no such myth exists for our modern cities.”

“Why would such creatures live in a city? Why not stay in the wild? Less chance of being seen,” she said.

“Also less food. They’re predators who prefer human flesh.” He shuddered, remembering. “There’s more of that in a city.”

“Sure, but you eliminated all the animal options.”

He stared out at the night. “This is a different jungle. Maybe we’ve created a new niche, supporting a different predator. Convergent evolution. Its other form may not be animal at all.”

“If it’s not an animal, what would it be?”

“Don’t know, but it’s more likely to be seen in a crowded city, so its other shape would need to be downright mundane.”

“But
what
?” Kate repeated.

Jan looked out to where shadows fought pale neon. He wanted to say that it would be a thing as at home with concrete and glass as a wolf was with earth and forest. A thing that breathed ozone like a summer breeze and held metal in its heart and electricity in its veins. A thing that not only lived in this realm of the lonely but fed on it. But he just said, “I don’t know.”

Kate shook her head then checked the time. “Oops. I’ve got to go. There was another witness last night––a hooker. She won’t talk to the cops but she’s meeting me at midnight.” She looked at Jan and bit her lip.

“Why don’t I come with you?” he asked.

She broke into a huge smile. “Great!” She put on her coat while Jan wondered what he had just done. Solly shuffled over. “I also told Harry I’d walk Solly to the shelter,” she said.

Solly peered outside. “We take Talbot?”

Talbot was little more than an alley, with no lights. Jan shivered. “Let’s keep to well-lit streets. We’ll use Richmond.” As Solly started to argue, Harry called Jan to the phone.

It was Garos. “Janoslav? Did you meet Kate Lockridge?”

“Yeah. I think she’s on the level, but she’s a reporter. She, uh, knows about the corpse decay and the other victims.”

Garos swore. “We checked her description of last night’s suspect.” He paused. “Jan, it matches a prior victim.”

Jan felt a sudden coldness in his gut. “Victim? That doesn’t make sense. How could it be a dead guy?”

“Jan, she was at the scene of the most recent killing and described a victim from another. Now you say she has further knowledge of these deaths. We’ll be talking to her again. In the meantime, be careful around her.” Garos hung up.

Jan stared at the neon signs over the bar, trying to lose himself in their colored swirls. A hand touched his shoulder. He jumped and turned to find Kate, Solly in tow. Jan’s face must have betrayed something. She looked puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

Jan shook his head. “No. Nothing,” he lied. “Let’s go.”

Waving good-bye to Harry, they stepped out onto Richmond and turned east. The snow had stopped, and the sidewalks were slushy. “We take Talbot?” Solly asked again.

“Richmond, Solly, or you go alone,” Jan said. Solly glared but fell silent, hanging by the curb and scanning the street as they walked. Jan kept thinking of Garos’s call. They reached Jarvis. A young blond woman stepped from a doorway, long white coat over a short red leather skirt, black stockings and boots.

“There’s Carla,” Kate said and started towards the girl.

A shout made them turn. Solly was backing away, wide-eyed and pointing a shaking hand to something above their heads. “No! Solly knows the signs. You won’t get Solly!” Terror on his face, he ran onto the street. Jan spun back. Above the doorway where Carla stood open-mouthed, a neon sign glared “Franny’s Tavern.” The first word was red, the second blue.

The blue one was moving.

In an eye-blink, the letters slid down the wall to form a glowing pool on the sidewalk. In another blink, a humanoid shape rose radiant white from the pool--female torso, face, hair, the shape of clothing, then colors, facial details.

The face of the murder victim from last night.

“Carla! Behind you!” Kate yelled.

A spear of light stabbed from the creature’s hand, striking Kate full in the chest and Jan in the shoulder. Electricity flamed into him. Numbed, he collapsed to watch as the thing grabbed Carla by the throat and lifted her into the air.

Slush seeping into his clothes, choking on ozone, Jan tried to move. A violent tremor shook Carla. Jan’s arms twitched. The creature held Carla higher, its glow brightening, colors cycling. Jan could feel his legs again. Carla fell limp, and the thing slapped her down like a wet towel. It turned to Kate.

Gasping, Jan heaved himself to his knees and lunged forward. Somehow he got his hands under Kate’s armpits and dragged her just out of reach. “Get up!” he cried.

“Can’t...move,” she gasped. He pulled her to her knees. The thing’s colors were fading, its features melting back into a smooth humanoid shape. It shimmered and changed again. And became Carla. The Carla-thing smiled. It stepped toward them.

Inches from its outstretched arms, Jan hauled Kate up, and they lurched into the road. Stumbling but with returning strength, Jan scanned the street. From a dark alley across the road a small round figure waved, a jerky motion from a stiff arm.

Half dragging Kate, Jan struggled towards Solly. Footsteps sounded behind them. The back of his neck tingled as if an electrical charge was building at his back. He pushed Kate into the alley as something brushed his coat. Shoving a trash can behind him, he heard a thud and a sound no human throat ever made. The alley was dark, and Jan’s eyes still burned from the electrical flash. Ahead, Solly’s gray form disappeared to the right. Jan moved along the wall, Kate’s hand in his.

“Now that thing looks like Carla!” she panted.

“It takes the form of what it kills,” Jan gasped.
That
was why her description of the suspect had matched an earlier victim.A hand grabbed Jan from the darkness and yanked them both sideways. He could see nothing but he knew the smell. Solly pulled them along. Jan could feel walls to either side. They stopped. Jan reached ahead in the dark and touched another wall.

Solly had led them into a dead end.

“No!” Jan screamed. His nightmare seized him. Trapped in the dark with a monster. And with a woman who trusted him.

* * *

Thirty-two. In a church basement outside Budapest. Waiting to die. Total darkness. Lying on damp earth, bound hand and foot. Stale smell of mildew stinging his throat. As he fought to awaken, a scream sliced the black, clearing the flames of pain in his head like a bucket of ice water. Stasia.

He raged against his bonds. She screamed again. “Jan! Oh God, no! No! Help me!” Jan threw himself forward and managed to roll once. Her cries were clearer. But so was another sound.

The sound of something feeding.

Jan threw himself again but something held him fast. He could do nothing but lie in the dark, listening to the beast feed on the still-living Stasia. Praying in the dark for her screams to cease. Praying in the dark for her to die.

An eternity passed. Then only the grunts of the beast remained. The stench of rotting meat grew strong. A huge shape moved in the darkness. Moved closer. Jan screamed.

Blinding light suddenly flooded the room, and the roar of the were-wolf echoed in the roar of gunshots. Blood, thick and black and hot, struck Jan’s face as Garos shouted his name.

* * *

In the dark alley, Jan shoved Solly away and turned to run back. Solly grabbed him, holding on with surprising strength. “No! Stay here.
Out of the light
. Solly knows!”

A glow began at the entrance to the dead-end, but Jan still couldn’t see. Kate’s hand found his. “Jan?” she said.

Hearing her fear, his panic fled, replaced by a feeling of resolve he had almost forgotten. He squeezed her hand. She would not die. “Solly, talk to me. Tell me what you know!”

Solly’s voice quavered. “It don’t like the dark. We’re safe here. Right?” At this, Kate groaned.

Jan swore, his mind racing. Light was the key. “It must feed off electricity, hiding as parts of signs. When you chased it last night, it joined with the sign in the alley.”

“That’s why the alley was brighter last night,” Kate said.

“Sunlight must sustain it in the day, plus electricity. But when night comes...” Jan stopped. When night comes, it needed more. It needed its real food: human life force.

The light at the entrance grew and the glowing form of Carla appeared. “I thought it doesn’t like the dark,” Kate whispered.

Jan swore. “It must still be hungry and figures we’re worth the risk. Solly, how long can it go without light?”

“Five minutes,” he whined, “but a lot more if it just ate.”

“Wonderful,” Kate said.

Twenty paces away now, the thing lit the entire area. Its glow was dimmer but Jan doubted that would save them. At least now he could see. He looked around, and his heart leapt. The wall behind them and the walls on either side each held a door.

Jan grabbed the door handle behind them. Locked. So was the one to their right. He tried the last one. The handle turned a bit. He leaned on it and heard a click. He threw his weight against the door and it squealed open with rusty protests.

“Inside!” Kate cried, rushing forward, Solly in hand.

“No!” Jan grabbed her, an idea forming. The thing was ten paces away. Pulling out his flashlight, he stepped into the room and flashed the beam around. The stock room of a store, twenty feet square. Not much space to maneuver. Could he do it? Could he finally face his darkness? By walking into it? He turned back. The thing was five paces away. He aimed his light at it.

“No!” Solly cried. “It eats light!”

Jan ignored him. “Kate, take Solly into the corner. After I lead it inside, close the door and don’t open it.” Kate turned pale but nodded and pulled Solly back. Jan stepped up, playing his beam over the creature. It turned to him. Keeping his light on it, he backed into the room. Darkness closed in on him and with it his fear. What had he done?

The thing stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind it.

It stopped and looked back. Its mouth opened, and a sound like fingers tapping fine crystal, filled the room. And somehow, in that sound Jan heard its hunger and its pain. A wave of empathy flooded him. They were alike. Hunters. Hiding their true shape. Fearing the night. The creature reached for him. I’m sorry, Jan thought. He turned off his light.

The thing trembled, and its aura dimmed. But then Carla’s features and clothing faded, seeming to melt back into its body. A featureless human form remained, glowing blue-white.

It’s conserving energy, Jan thought. It no longer needed to pretend to be human. He swallowed. How intelligent was it?

A deadly game of tag began––the thing pursuing with the same plodding step––Jan retreating, avoiding corners, always leaving two paths of escape. With each passing minute, the thing’s aura dimmed, fading to blue, then yellow, then red.

Finally it stopped, arms drooping. Jan sighed and relaxed. He noticed too late that the arms weren’t just drooping.

They were growing.

Both arms flashed out, three times normal length, easily covering the space between the thing and Jan. Taken by surprise, Jan dove aside but a hand brushed his thigh. Electricity numbed his leg. He fell. Looming over him, the thing reached down.

And stopped. Its colors cycled the spectrum then faded to gray. A sound like breaking glass fled a suddenly grotesque mouth. Its feet melted into a pool. The arms flowed back into a shrinking torso. Soon only the pool remained, faintly glowing.

Jan walked to it. The pool bulged once toward him, then its last light died and Jan stood in the dark. He waited before flicking on his light. The pool was a dull gray. He kicked, and it shattered with a crystal cry, imploding into sparkling powder.

He opened the door, and Kate threw her arms around him. Back on the street, Solly checked every bit of neon in sight, then fixed Jan with that eye. “Gotta know the signs,” he said.

Jan phoned the police about Carla’s body and left a message for Garos to call.

“So what now, hunter?” Kate asked.

Solly stared up at Jan. “You gonna get the others too?”

Jan and Kate turned to him. “Others?” Kate groaned.

Jan shrugged then looked at her. “I could use a partner.” She said nothing but took his hand as they walked Solly home.

They took Talbot.

* * *

Thirty-five. A midnight street. He waits in the dark, watching the signs. She waits beside him. He knows the ways of the beast; she knows these streets. A town pays well to be rid of its creatures of the night. Creatures that breathe ozone like a summer breeze, wear glass for skin and burn electricity in their veins. Creatures that feed on this realm of the lonely.

Once, he shunned the dark where shadows hide their secrets. Now he stalks the night streets, a shadow himself slipping from alley to alley. Now he keeps to the dark.

And stays out of the light.

HUNGRY LIKE THE MOON

ROB E. BOLEY

I wake up to the noise of zombies moaning. Sounds like a breeze gliding through a broken seashell.

I’m trapped in a cramped diner with seven zombies: three men, three women, and a little girl. The seven zombies are a mess of torn flesh, bite marks, and gashes. Their flesh is pale, and their eyes are horribly dull—like rotten egg yolks left out in the sun. I’ve woken up in plenty of bad situations, but this is the worst.

I try to sit up, but can barely move.

The diner is a long, skinny rectangle cut in half lengthways by a bar-top. Behind the bar is what’s left of a greasy spoon kitchen. The walls are covered with gore, claw marks, and matted hair—evidence of an unquenchable hunger. A horizontal strip of mirror runs along the diner’s side and rear walls, most of it now shattered, cracked, or splattered with blood. At the rear of the diner is a short hallway with a unisex bathroom and a boarded exit. The front is simply a door and a window, both reinforced with broken tables.