Terra Mechanica: A Steampunk Anthology (51 page)

“Marcus, listen to me. The tincture you drank protects your mind from the beast, but it exposes you to the full pain of the change.” Marcus’ face flinched and his eyes rolled as a wave of sharp crackling tore down his spine.

“Marcus. Your Emily is not dead.” Marcus lifted his pallid face to look at Otto. “She was not murdered—she was the murderer. Not her, but the beast inside. She is a terrible thing now, the worst of our kind, and she has passed her curse on to you.”

A rush of memories overwhelmed Marcus’ vision. Could the park—the vision of Emily—have been real? Otto shook Marcus by the shoulders, pulling him from his revelation. His eyes refocused on the urgently pleading Otto.

“You must succeed. You must subdue the Jagerund inside you if you want to save her, free her from her curse.”

Working quickly, Chin finished securing Marcus to the chair and attached a strap to his arm by a large buckle. A heavy wire connected the strap to the machine. A loud thud sounded beside them as Gordon dropped a second identical device.

“If we’re gunna do this, I thought we might s’well put both of ’em together, like we did that one time.”

“Good thinking, Gordon,” Otto accepted a curious-looking handle from Chin. Connected to the first machine in the same manner as the strap on his arm, the handle had a mechanical lever along its length. Gordon turned a crank, and the two machines whirred to life.

“This is a device of my own invention,” began Otto, placing the handle in Marcus’ bound hand. “When you squeeze this lever, you will both feel the pain, but the electricity will hurt the creature within more than it will hurt you. The beast will try to break you. It has already made room for its own lungs to breathe. You must stop it from going further. You cannot allow the transformation to complete until it has learned submission.”

Otto continued speaking words of encouragement, but Marcus did not hear them. At that moment, a surge of pain flooded his senses, and something unnatural stirred within him.

Marcus squeezed the handle. Every muscle, from his bicep to his hand, locked as the burning pain surged through his arm. The thing within him cringed, and he released the lever.

The current stopped, allowing Marcus a gasping breath. The strange churning inside him paused only a moment before redoubling with vengeance. The knuckles of his empty hand dislocated as they separated from their joints. The skin of that arm became tight, and a throbbing pain burned in his fingertips as sharp claws pushed their way through.

Another squeeze, and again the jarring jolt of electricity coursed through his arm. He could feel the thing inside him now. He could feel its hunger and rage. The change paused once more. He released the trigger.

The thing within him resumed immediately and with force.

Marcus clenched his fist around the handle a third time, but the surge only fueled the monster’s rage. He could feel it in his feet now. A strange pressure in his legs grew until his bones snapped. Marcus cried out and crushed the lever against the handle with all his might, but it was no use. Desperation overcame him as he looked to his companions, and the change overtook him.

Chin backed away, her body altering as she moved, revealing bird-like legs. Her arms took on the appearance of skeletal wings. Her forearms and fingers lengthened, and again, her clawed extensions reached forward from her wrists. Gordon had already changed. His broadened body and his enlarged and clawed hands and feet gave him a savage appearance. Menacing tusks rose from below his jaw.

Only Otto remained as he was. The small man pulled up his own sleeve and thrust his bare arm in front of Marcus’ eyes.

“Fight, Marcus!” he shouted as he displayed the grotesque red burn scars that ran from his palm toward his shoulder. “We have all fought this battle! You must not give in!”

A massive, unnatural arm flung Otto across the room. Marcus felt pulling against his sides as a strong hand tore away the straps that bound him. Only then did he realize that the savage limb was his own.

Working in him with full force now, the creature pushed through the ongoing burn of the generators and the smell of burning flesh. Marcus’ skin stretched, revealing a darker hide beneath. He watched, a prisoner in his own body, and felt himself hunch over at the creature’s will. The sting of a thousand nails tore at his nerves as sharp quills broke through the skin of his back.

The creature straightened, and Marcus’ cry mingled its roar as the bones of his face contorted and broke. The Jagerund continued its roar from its deep chest as the transformation completed, and Marcus felt its razor sharp fangs fit together in place of his own teeth.

He could see himself towering over the others in the room. Gordon lunged at him with tooth and claw, but the hide of the Jagerund was too thick; savage teeth clamped down on Gordon. His body went limp and joined Otto in the corner where he lay, still unconscious. Chin darted around the ferocious beast. Striking with her scythe-like claws, she leapt from wall to wall.

The flitting attacker infuriated the beast. Marcus’ new body lifted a massive generator and hurled it against the wall, where the fierce woman clung. It caved with the impact, and though Chin escaped, it was not without injury.

Inside the beast, Marcus wept. The Jagerund reveled in its triumph. It lifted the second generator and bashed through the windowed wall to expose the clear night sky. He felt his lungs fill with cold, fresh air. As it stepped into the opening, the beast again roared in victory.

Something caught Marcus’ eye. The Jagerund must have seen it too, for they were now staring directly at it. There, on the rooftop across the alleyway, stood a woman. The blue light of the full moon shone on her, revealing her blood-stained rags, and the tears that washed pure white streaks down her dirtied face—her beautiful, almond-shaped face.

Emily.

She lived.

Despite the curse that they now shared, she was alive. What horrors had she woken to when the Jagerund within her surfaced again and again to satisfy its hunger? What despair had she felt when she failed to keep the beast away from humanity, from the ones she loved?

Marcus snarled in hate for the parasites that now infected them both. He could not succumb. He would not succumb. Not while Emily lived, not while she needed him. He would not fail her again. Marcus fought against that other mind within him. He forced himself to tear his gaze from her. Stumbling back from the gaping hole, he fell to the floor. His brutal arms pulled his body forward, dragging him further into the room. Against the efforts of the Jagerund, he looked for Otto. The man was nowhere to be found.

A spark flashed and crackled nearby.

The generator.

It still whirred by the wall where it had fallen. For the sake of his Emily, he would subdue the beast, or die trying. Marcus dragged himself closer to it. Finding the first wire, his razor sharp teeth slice through the protective coating and down into the cold, dense copper beneath.

The creature fought against his will as he reached for the second cable. Gripping the wire in his savage claws, he took the bare metal end and drove it against his chest with all his might.

A brilliant flash and burning pain instantly engulfed all his senses. Blowing Marcus onto his back, the surge coursed through his body like tearing, white fire in his veins. The Jagerund recoiled and cried out in agony.

Everything stilled.

Marcus’ ears rang. He could hear the ominous thudding of his own heart.

Thub-dub. Thub-dub. Thub . . . thub . . . dub . . . thub . . .

His breathing slowed. Darkness encroached. He could do nothing now. Perhaps death was better than living as a monster.

In his final moments of consciousness, the only peace Marcus found was in the satisfying sense of fear and desperation in the werekind within him. Then the world, with all of its pain and all of its loss, gave way to emptiness, and on the floor of his prison room, Dr. Marcus Wells died.

But the Jagerund did not know surrender.

Thub . . . Thub . . . Thub-dub . . . Thub-dub. Thub-dub. Thub-dub. Thub-dub.

Marcus’ heart burst back to life. Gasping, he rolled over. Immediately, the creature within him worked at his limbs, trying to move itself away from the wretched generator. Marcus quickly clamped down on the metal cord again and raised the second wire in his hand.

A newfound terror leapt up in the monster as it gave way to his will.

The Jagerund had saved them both. Marcus felt the heart-reviving adrenaline coursing through his body. The creature would never again risk such a challenge. Death to the host was death to the beast.

Marcus relaxed and lay still on the floor. A painful, but relieving sensation came over him as his natural bones fit back together and found their proper places. Lying face down, he could not summon the strength to move. In the quiet, he gasped, thankful for every strained breath.

A hand rested on his back.

“Well done, Dr. Wells,” whispered Otto’s voice. “Sleep now, both of you.”

For a second time he felt a pinch in his neck. A calm sensation spread throughout his body and he slipped into welcomed unconsciousness.

Yellow light shone through the translucent ceiling panels of the train station. Marcus watched as at the far end, a pair of parting lovers embraced one another tearfully. A week ago, a reminder of such passion would have sent arrows though his fragile heart. But with the knowledge that Emily lived, nothing would hinder or sway him from saving her from her Jagerund.

He looked to the nearest of the several crates being loaded onto the freight car beside him. It contained one of the salvaged generators, and weighed nearly 300 pounds. Stealing a glance around him to ensure no one was watching, he bent down and took hold of the box. Thanks to the side effects of his condition, he lifted the crate with little strain, and placed it into the freight car among the others.

“Easy there, mate,” Gordon chided as he moved a similarly heavy crate. “Too much strain and you’ll wake up yer lil’ friend. My back’s still sore from the last time ‘e came out to play.”

Marcus smiled at his new companion. From behind him came Otto’s terse voice. “And there would be far too many witnesses.”

Approaching with his usual quick pace, Otto added, “As long as the general populace believes we are a myth, we will be free to continue our business and bring hope to the hundreds of souls likewise bound by our curse. Until such a time, secrecy is of the utmost importance.”

“And what is our plan, Otto?” Marcus asked as he continued to load the smaller crates and parcels. Otto stopped beside him, dressed in his best clothes and bowler, just as Marcus had seen him that first night.

“Gordon and the others will go back to Liverpool to resupply and secure the provisions we will need. You, Chin, and I will follow Miss Emily. She has already left the city, so I’m told, and is heading north. Do you have any suspicions as to where she might be going?”

“She has no ties in that direction, save for the sanatorium. The only thing I can reason is that she intends to limit her violence to places it has already impacted, and the least populated of them. My bet is that she will return to the hills near the sanatorium where she was first infected.”

“Hmm. It would be unusual for a werekind to return to the territory where it was spawned. But, if she has not yet succumbed to the beast fully, she might be doing as you say. There may be hope in that.”

Marcus hesitated. “Should we bring Gordon, or another werekind of strength, with us if we are to subdue her Jagerund?”

“You, of all people, should know that it is no easy thing to restrain such a creature. No, Gordon will oversee things in Liverpool and meet up with us once we determine where she is headed. It will not be force that rescues your Emily. The beast will emerge against us at the slightest hint of a threat, and every time it does so, her mind will slip further from our reach. It will not be your strength that restrains her, but the bond between you.”

“And you believe we can cure her?”

“That will be up to your medical talents. I will avail myself to your efforts in any way that I can. But first, we must find her and keep her counterpart from unleashing its rage and revealing our existence to the masses.”

“My heart beats for nothing more.”

The leather cord that hung around Marcus’ neck slipped from beneath his shirt collar as he bent to pick up the last of the boxes. He quickly tucked the makeshift necklace and the ring that dangled from it back under his shirt. He felt the cool metal rest against the burn scars on his chest as he continued. Leaving London, his residency, all of it, behind was a simple decision. Nothing would be the same, not until he had found Emily, not until he had found a way to kill the werekind within them.

Marcus set the last parcel into the boxcar. He could feel the unseen body within his own as he worked. He could feel its hunger, its bitterness. He turned back to the smaller man. “I will find her and I will find a way to free her, to free all of us. I swear it to you, by all that is in me.”

Otto smiled. “I believe you shall, my good doctor. I believe you shall.”