Stone Soldiers 5: Black Knight Down (11 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Get the boy!" Kenslir yelled, holstering his pistol. He took two quick steps toward Josie, then scooped her up off the ground, slinging her over his shoulder as though she weighed no more than a discarded blanket. Then he broke into a run. A fast run.

Josie had been carried by the Colonel before. In Virginia he'd carried her after they'd parachuted to earth to fight a necromancer and his spectral army. Her grandfather had cradled her in his arms like a small child then- leaping and sprinting along, dodging between trees at a pace not even an Olympic runner could have maintained on flat ground.

This time, the Colonel was moving even faster.

It was a bumping jostling ride on her grandfather's shoulder. One which made seeing what was going on behind them very difficult. Father Schuler had similarly picked up Jimmy, and was carrying the protesting teen at a pace just as swift as the Colonel's. Far behind them, the five flying women were slowly catching up, their altitude decreasing as they swept in toward the ground.

Josie couldn't see where they were headed- it wasn't back through the grassy field toward the car. Before Josie could wonder much more about it, they reached their destination- an old, wooden barn that the Colonel crashed through the side of like a raging bull.

Splinters and dust flew around them as the Colonel skidded to a halt and swung Josie down from his shoulder.

"Hide!" Kenslir barked. Then he turned to face the side of the barn he and Schuler had just crashed through. Instead of drawing his pistol, the Colonel drew the twin Bowie knives he carried from their shoulder-hung sheaths.

Josie looked around, confused. The barn was large- more like a warehouse- and filled with pallets of what smelled like rotting strawberries. It was an overwhelming, sickening smell that filled the air. She stumbled away, into the shadows, ducking behind a pallet, moving to a position where she could watch what was about to happen.

A large gust of wind shook the barn and the huge, twin doors to the right of the wall Kenslir had crashed through blew open. The wind stirred the dirt on the floor of the warehouse as Jimmy slowly stood from where he'd been unceremoniously dropped by Father Schuler. The priest stood facing the open doors also- his fists balled tightly.

Five figures lowered slowly down from the air, coming into view through the open doors as they touched down. Five blonde women, their hair pulled back in long tight braids, their naked bodies painted with swirls and loops of red. Strips of what looked like human hair hung from ropes around their waists, barely concealing their groins.

"Reveal yourselves!" one women shrieked, stepping forward, her hand outstretched, a shiny, black lacquered nail pointing. She and the others all looked remarkably similar- bleached blonde hair, high cheeks bones and full, black lips.

"We're right here," Mark Kenslir said, standing his ground.

The witch's eyes narrowed as she considered Kenslir. Then she turned her attention to Father Schuler. "You! Priest! Why are you here?"

Father Schuler opened his mouth, unsure what to say. Before he could reach a decision, a large Bowie knife suddenly appeared in the witch's chest- sprouting as if by magic from her large, left breast.

The force of the thrown blade was so great, the witch staggered back a few steps. Her sisters recoiled in surprise and terror.

Miranda House looked down at the huge knife, its foot long blade buried in her breast at least half its length. Then she began laughing.

"Nice try, little man," the witch finally said, calmly reaching up and pulling the blade free. She licked her own blood from the blade, twisting and turning it in the light.

"-but we've all made sure no man will ever break our hearts."

Miranda raised her free hand to her breast and stroked it slowly with her left index finger. Where her fingertip passed over the bleeding incision, flesh fused back shut and she was whole once more.

"Whoa!" Jimmy said, surprised.

Miranda moved suddenly, maybe even faster than the Colonel. Her hand whipped out and the Bowie knife was no longer in it. She had thrown the blade with deadly accuracy at Jimmy, penetrating his chest, and heart, with it.

Josie gasped from behind the pallet she was using for cover as Jimmy staggered backwards and dropped to his knees.

Kenslir rolled his eyes. "Don't be a baby, Kane." Then he quick drew his magnum and rapidly fired it from the hip, five times.

All five of the witches jerked as a bullet penetrated each of their foreheads. One after another, they dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Father Schuler looked at the witches, then Kenslir. "You know that won't work."

"Just needed a moment," the Colonel said, holstering the magnum and walking over to Jimmy.

Kane was on his knees, hands clutched around the handle of the knife sticking out of his chest. He looked up at Kenslir, a stunned, scared look on his face.

"Good grief," Kenslir said, grabbing the blade and jerking it free. "It's not silver."

Shock covered Jimmy's face as the Colonel calmly wiped the blade clean on his pant leg then holstered it. "On your feet, soldier!"

Josie rushed out from her place of hiding, helping Jimmy as he stood. She felt at the bloody spot on his chest- finding that the skin had already closed on his wound.

"Dammit! I told you to hide!" the Colonel said to her.

"But you killed them!" Josie said, turning toward the open doors of the barn. "I wanted to check on-"

She stopped talking when she saw the witches no longer lay on the ground.

"You can't kill a witch unless you destroy their heart," Father Schuler said.

"They armored themselves?" Jimmy said, coughing up a bit of blood.

"Pretty smart, for a witch," Kenslir said, listening quietly.

Laughter- the witche
s’
laughter- filled the barn. A gust of wind picked up and the doors to the barn slammed shut.

Father Schuler, Josie and Jimmy all looked around, trying to see in the inky blackness the barn had been plunged in. Somehow, even with his werewolf-enhanced vision, Jimmy found the barn to be too dark to see.

"What have we here?" a witch asked from one corner of the barn.

"A priest, a little girl..." another said from somewhere else.

"- a soldier and... a werewolf!" another finished from yet another dark corner.

Josie was holding tightly onto Jimmy's arm now. She could feel the goosebumps on his skin. Then she could feel them changing. Getting hairier.

"Jimmy?" Josie said, looking over toward her boyfriend. There was almost no light in the depths of the barn- but where they stood, the faintest glimmer of moonlight was coming from the hole the Colonel had made in a wall. It was
n’
t much, but it was enough to see Jimmy, his body frozen in place and changing. Into a werewolf.

Josie released her grip on the hairy arm that seemed to be rippling and moving under the skin. She stepped back a pace. Then strong hands grabbed her shoulders from behind- hands with long, painful nails.

"What a pretty girl!" a witch's voice declared.

Josie found herself jerked off her feet and engulfed in inky blackness.

"Colonel?" Father Schuler asked. He turned toward Kenslir- and found the supersoldier no longer there.

A growl behind him alerted the priest. He spun just in time to see a clawed, hairy hand slashing at him. He barely managed to block it. Another clawed hand struck out- this time curled into a semblance of a fist. It struck Father Schuler with full force, knocking the wind from his lungs and sending him flying.

A witch stepped out from the shadows behind Jimmy, running her long nails up and down his arms and chest. "I've always wanted a dog!"

The witch pulled at the tattered strips of clothing barely clinging to what had been Jimmy Kane's body as Father Schuler climbed back to his feet. She brushed at the werewol
f’
s matted, blonde hair, as if grooming him.

The werewolf stood in place as the witch stroked its fur- watching the priest with evil eyes, saliva dripping from its open jaws. It bristled with anger- a rage ready to explode.

The witch let her hands run up and down the werewolf's hairy body, hesitating for a moment on his groin. "Oh, yes! I do love a hairy beast!"

"I am not afraid of you, witch," Father Schuler said, standing and brushing himself off. "I've killed your kind before. And his."

The witch stepped out from behind the werewolf, only one hand lingering on his arm. "I doubt you've ever seen a witch like me, priest," Miranda House taunted, rubbing her free hand over breasts.

She was about to say something else when her body convulsed briefly and her mouth hung open. Her eyes went wide with surprise.

The werewolf turned toward Miranda, growling and about to lunge. A blackened fist erupted from the shadows, striking it in the snout. Green light flared brightly as fist met snout- like a flash camera going off.

As the wolf flew backwards from the terrific blow, the green flash revealed Colonel Kenslir behind Miranda, his right hand gripping a Bowie knife tightly. The knife was buried to the hilt in the witch's back, holding her now lifeless body up.

The werewolf smashed into a pallet of crates and fell to the ground- unconscious. Father Schuler then heard a sickening crunching, sucking sound as Kenslir, once more shrouded in darkness, twisted his Bowie knife and pulled it free. Miranda House's body fell limply to the ground. The Colonel was a barely discernible outline in the shadows.

"Keep an eye on him," Kenslir said. Then he stepped back into the darkness and vanished again.

"No!" A witch shrieked. She flew down out of the darkness above- landing lightly beside Miranda's corpse. The witch's nails were now nearly four inches long- extended like black-lacquered daggers.

"Where is he?!" Gwen Putnam screamed. "Where is the sold-"

A knife flashed from out of the darkness and one of Gwen's hands was sliced off- flying away from her wrist. Before she could respond, her body jerked once then was lifted off the ground. It stayed there for but a moment- only the vaguest outline of the Colonel visible holding her up by the knife in her back. Then the witch's corpse was flung to the side- flung off the huge Bowie knife that had sliced her heart in two.

Again, the Colonel vanished back into the shadows.

The werewolf was stirring now. Father Schuler stepped over and smashed a fist down on top of its head, again knocking it unconscious. As he stepped back, a strong hand grabbed his arm and another looped around in front of him, long nails pressed against his throat.

"Come out, soldier!" Colleen Harper shrieked. "Come out and show yourself or the priest dies!"

Father Schuler immediately felt the body pressed against him shudder with the terrific impact of yet another knife thrust. The witch's hands went limp, then she fell away, her corpse landing at his feet.

Father Schuler turned in place, straining to see into the shadows. Kenslir, Josie nor the last two witches were anywhere to be seen.

"Surrender, heathens!" the priest yelled. "Let the girl go and we'll spare your lives!"

Father Schuler waited for several seconds. No sound could be heard in the barn.

"Colonel! Tell them! Tell them they can surrender!"

Again, Father Schuler was met only with silence.

A shape suddenly raced toward the priest and he was barely able to get his hands up to block it. A woman- moving swiftly toward him. The priest caught the woman, then held her in a crushing bear hug.

Two more forms hurtled past the priest- one on either side of him. They streaked past at amazing speed, vanishing out of the hole in the side of the barn.

"Let her go, Priest," Colonel Kenslir said, stepping calmly out of the shadows. All around him the darkness seemed to lighten as whatever magic the witches had worked on the barn faded.

Father Schuler relaxed his grip and looked down at the woman he was holding- it was the black haired girl, Josie Winters, that had accompanied Kenslir to Oklahoma.

"I'm so sorry," Father Schuler said, releasing Josie and stepping back.

Kenslir stepped up behind Josie and sliced with his knife. The Bowie neatly severed the strands of human hair that had bound Josie's wrists behind her back. She immediately pulled her hands to her face and ripped loose the hair that was wrapped around her head and in her mouth, like a gag.

"That was so disgusting!" Josie gasped, spitting.

Father Schuler looked down at the three dead witches on the floor of the barn, then back to Kenslir. "Now what?"

"Now we find three more witches," Kenslir said.

Josie crossed to Jimmy, who was still in the shape of a werewolf. "What about Jimmy?"

"Look closer," Kenslir said.

Josie looked back and saw that Jimmy was shrinking. The hair covering his body was dropping off, and his limbs and face were resuming human proportions.

"They used magic to turn him all the way," Kenslir said. "They're conserving their power now- he'll be fine."