Raven Moon (7 page)

“Are you sure their bite turns humans?”

“Yes, but at a slower rate. A week instead of two days.”

“What about other species?”

“They injected lab dogs, rats and even chickens but they never turned. Other primates like Rhesus monkeys and baboons never became infected. Something about chimpanzee DNA being so close to humans.”

Rave wiped a spot of perspiration from her forehead. “Good to know.”

He stared at his feet and shrugged. “At least you can show the video to others and they can hunt down the rest.”

Rave raised a brow. “Hmm. I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem shooting the chimpanzombies.”

He sighed in pure defeat. “When I die, I too will be just as fast and strong, plus with a fierce pair of canines. The good news is once they get a hold of a human, there is never enough left to rise as a zombie. The danger is if they bite and their victim escapes, like me. For humanity’s sake arrange shooters to eradicate them before it’s too late.”

She patted him on his shoulder. “We’re on it.”

“Trust me you’ll wish for the good old days of slow shambling zombies.”

Rave scoffed. “I long for the good old days of no zombies except those only seen on B movies.” She narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure bitten humans acquire ape strength?”

“The man who bit me was more ape than human. Big and fast enough to chase cars and jump on trees like the jungle was his natural habitat.” He handed her the camcorder. “It’s all on tape.”

Rave took it. Dora would find this useful and it might be a good idea to bring a team to kill the chimp infected ones before their world turned into Planet of the Zombie Apes. “Fortunately for shifters, we are immune to the Z-phage.” The chimpanzombies would never reach a bird in flight and no way could they defeat werewolves, at least the alphas.

Gary scoffed. “Immune? Now I know I’m hallucinating.”

“Have you seen them eat other animals?”

“No, but then again we destroyed all of our animals a while back. They were sure fond of both human and chimpanzee flesh.”

Beccan stiffened. “We’ve got company.”

A large swarm of zombies, the
George Romero
version of slow zombies shambled toward them.

“Can you walk?”

Gary winced as he hobbled. “I’ll try.”

“Beccan, find a car and bring him. Cashel and I will meet you at the hotel.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Gary gave her a double take. “Princess?”

Rave rolled her eyes. “It’s an inside joke.”

Cashel took her aside. “Taking him is not a good idea. He may turn any day.”

“We’ll secure him on another floor. If what he says is true, we need to get every detail and eradicate this new threat.”

Once at the hotel, they locked him in the hotel’s gated underground parking lot. Her men immediately went to work to bring him bedding.

Rave turned to Gary. “Where do you want the mattress?”

“By the elevator.” Zombies were not bright enough to push buttons.

Beccan and Cashel set the twin mattress down and then she padded it with borrowed comforters. “We’ll get you food and water from the kitchen, mostly canned food I’m sure, but I don’t think you’re too picky.” She bit her lower lip. He seemed like such a nice guy with a once promising career. “I wish we could do more for you.”

“Thanks.” He patted his gun. “If I think I’m turning, I’m ready.”

Rave braved a smile. “If you don’t have a chance, we will.”

He sighed dejectedly. “I’ll hold you to that promise.”

After they returned to their room, Rave took out the camcorder, sat on the luxurious couch, and plopped her boots up on the footrest. She pressed play. Enraged apes ran amok. They consumed a handler to molecular bits. She violently drew back and almost dropped the camera. “Oh shit, this was taken from the
28 Days Later
movie
script.”

Cashel leaned. “Never heard of it.”

Rave shot him a long-suffering look. “What kind of movies did you watch before the Bane?” Actually, the older man spent his down time reading and never went out, not even on a date. Had he devoted his life to her family to the point of sucking out any chance of finding happiness? He never found a nesting mate.

“I preferred historical epics like
Lincoln
.”

“I take it, not the one where he kills zombies?”

Cashel stared at the video, before answering. “Certainly not. I never cared for horror.”

Beccan snorted. “At least I played Halo 3’s
Infection
and was a fan of
Resident Evil
.” He winked at Rave. “I was especially a fan of Alice.”

Really? You think a wink will get you in my panties?
She rolled her eyes and lifted the camera so they could all watch. Mesmerized by the footage they could not turn away from the horror of people ripped apart by mindless dead apes. Her last meal threatened to come up. “Enough, I’m fast forwarding.” She pressed play after Gary’s escape into the manhole. She watched the men he’d seen capturing the chimpanzombies. Were they militia or tankers? Most of the ragtag militia tried to help but the tankers searched out their next area to rape and pillage. Their common form of entertainment included watching their victims eaten by zombies.

Cashel gasped. “The Kindred.”

Rave studied the bald man leading the others. She twisted a smile. “His scar gets bigger every time I see him.”
Good job, Sierra
. Dirk’s twin sister, Sierra in werewolf rage had disfigured his face. He wore his wolf-fur lined jacket and alligator-skinned boots. “Jaeger.”

Deccan scowled. “What the hell does he want with the damn dead apes?”

Rave shot him a dismissive look. Don’t go channeling Charlton Heston. “Remember how he sold Dirk to a black ops lab to study his werewolf blood? Maybe he thinks some lab can experiment on the apes or worse.”

Deccan scoffed. “I doubt any labs are left to tinker on anything.”

Cashel narrowed his eyes at Rave. “What do you mean by worse?”

“He might use them as a new weapon against the werewolves.”

Cashel shook his head. “I doubt they can be trained to kill werewolves. Besides, not even the largest meanest living ape could kill an alpha werewolf.” His face twisted in horror. “Could they infect them?”

Rave stiffened but then remembered what Gary had told them. “No. The lab dogs never turned. The last thing they’d want is rabid werewolves. Don’t worry. Dr. Adler said shifters had some sort of protective set of antibodies or something. But yeah, I could see him using them against the packs to kill the betas and their young.” Children could not shift until adolescence and betas could only shift during the full moon. Bird shifters could fly early but only when they turned ten, making them just as vulnerable.

Beccan sighed. “Well what should we do about the ape zombies?”

Cashel scowled at him. “We’ll return to headquarters and send the Wolf Guard.”

Rave shook her head. “No, that will take too long. We’ll hunt and kill the chimpanzombies before they infect survivors.”

Cashel’s tone hardened. “I won’t allow it.”

She stood and met his eyes. “I’m in command.”

He huffed and grabbed his weapons. “I’ll take first watch.”

After Cashel’s night watch on the balcony, Rave woke to relieve him. Though they encouraged her to sleep, she insisted she take her turn. She glanced at her watch and suppressed a yawn. Midnight. Rave wished she’d been an owl shifter. She left her comfortable bed and entered the bathroom. Was the water still running? The huge tub and the fluffy plush terrycloth guest robe teased her.
What I would give for a hot bath? In my raven form cold water will do. Maybe after my watch.

Cashel stepped in and gave her a pointed stare. “Are you sure you’d rather not skip tonight’s duty?”

“Nope, besides didn’t you get up the earliest yesterday?”

“Very well then.” He went into his room and closed the door.

Rave donned her leather jacket and zipped it. The night air had chilled but threatening rain clouds still lingered. Snow in Central Texas? Was that even a possible? Since the zombie apocalypse the weather patterns had been odd, perhaps due to less usage of fossil fuels.

She looked into the pantry and shrugged. Room service with hot chocolate would be nice. A helicopter’s motor cut the apocalyptic silence, startling her. What the hell? Shifters or humans? Had the Kindred returned? These days no one wasted fuel, especially not in a place ravaged by millions of ghouls. Hmm. Most likely, they were survivors hoping the nearby medical lab was still up and running. Looking for a cure. Welcome to Disappointment City.

Rave walked to the balcony window and peeked out. The helicopter landed on the roof of a skyscraper across from the hotel. The door opened. Her pulse raced. “Oh shit.” A large white wolf, wearing a backpack, leapt out. She looked through her infrared binoculars at the symbol of a wolf over a cross painted on the side of the helicopter. Benandanti werewolves. Religious nut jobs bent on killing witches and any shifters they believed in league with the devil. Sworn enemies of her kind, and her friends, the Fenrir Arbor werewolves.

Maybe they were on a scouting mission to find humans to convert to their archaic form of Bible thumping wolf cult. She would almost rather face roaming raiders that combed the country looking for women to rape and in a sick way repopulate the world. Not as bad as the tankers, that used women until they tired of them. Once they were no longer of any use, the tankers fed them to zombies while they looted stores undisturbed.

The white wolf shifted to a man. A muscular naked tall blond- haired hotter than hell man. Maddox. She licked her lips and gaped. At least, he wasn’t interested in hunting fugitive ravens, but stalked the Kindred, she hoped. The pilot stepped out and handed Maddox a letter. Maddox read it and appeared to argue with his pilot. He crumpled the letter and then threw it at the pilot, who then stepped back into the helicopter and started the engine. Maddox raged a howl as the helicopter rose and took off.

What’s got his hackles up?

Cashel joined her. “We’ll need to leave before he catches our scent.”

She continued to stare, unblinking. “I’m pretty sure he’s here hunting the Kindred, not us.”

Beccan scoffed. “I bet he’d rather capture or kill you, Princess.”

Rave shook her head. “Nobody knows about our mission to the Texas bio lab.”

Cashel agreed with Beccan. “It’s possible our compound has an informant.”

“Not likely, only Dirk, Dora and Talon know about our intel assignment.”

Chapter 5

The pilot shouted above the clang of the propellers, “I’ll return to this very spot in a week.” The helicopter lifted, leaving Maddox on the top of the hotel in San Antonio, Texas.

Maddox had roared his rage at the pilot after reading the contents of the envelope. Something about Lazarus’s pilot, Nick had smelled foul. Now he knew why. Damn beta knew all along about the deception. He’d waited until landing before handing him the new orders. Maddox picked up the crumbled paper and re-read it.

Greetings Maddox,

I’m ordering you to desist looking for the werewolf hunter and instead find medical personal and, especially young women willing to join our church. New intel indicates scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Center have tested a vaccine against the Bane that may offer salvation for our faithful human followers. I’m certain this is why Jaeger has been snooping around. Search for research scientists, Nick will return in a week and bring them back to our safe enclave. Approach the lab with caution in case the Kindred still lurk.

Bloody hell!
Trained human soldiers could carry out this mission. After the Kindred had massacred most of their pack killing their leader, Jaeger should have been first priority. His recent intel, indicated Jaeger was spotted here two days ago. Why would Lazarus order him to stop the hunt when he was so close?

Knowing his obsession with vengeance, why was Lazarus testing his obedience? Perhaps, it was the prophet’s retribution for Maddox’s refusal to become his second in command.

Maybe he should quickly look for survivors of any kind, bring them up here, and then continue stalking the werewolf hunter? He would still be following his major order. A week might just give him enough time and if he missed his ride, not a problem. There were plenty of abandoned cars to drive up to Benandanti territory.

Maddox dug into his large pack and checked his katana in its scabbard, his weapon of choice. He prepared to don his clothes when eerie shrieks raised his hackles. He shoved his clothes back in the pack and allowed his beast to rise. Maddox rarely shifted to huge bipedal werewolf form but instinct from a new danger drove him to shift.

Loud hoots echoed through the night. Snapping barks followed the roaring hoots and then fierce screams. It reminded him of enraged chimpanzees he’d seen on a documentary. He sniffed the air. The stench of the dead ghouls mixed with the new odor of rotting ape filled the air. Bloody hell, they’re dead.

Had the scientists tested a vaccine on apes? Damn. The vaccine had backfired. He didn’t have just human zombies to contend with but powerful apes. Four times stronger than humans, chimpanzee zombies could endanger their lower rank werewolves and offspring. Only the alpha werewolves could shift on demand while the lower ranked werewolves shifted only during the full moon and then into wolf forms. And only the alpha could shift into the second monstrous bipedal form. The children would not have their first shift until early adolescence, leaving them vulnerable to zombie attack. He contained his initial anger at Lazarus’s new command. His wolf’s need to protect his pack overtook his personal need for revenge. The sooner he took care of the new threat, the sooner he could get back to hunting Jaeger.

Maddox leaned over the roof. Three rampaging zombie apes moved at great speed toward his building. Six others headed toward the hotel across from the street and appeared to answer the call of an ape hooting from inside an underground garage of that same hotel. Survivors were inside, but not for long.

Raw predatory instinct overtook Maddox and he roared in challenge.

One huge graying ape stared up at him and hooted as he climbed up the wall. His bloodied fangs had pieces of flesh lingering in his maw. Two others followed.