The Ancient Breed (53 page)

66

B

efore Nick traveled much farther into the eerie passage, his body completed its transformation into a primitive beast. His mind was altered as well. There were no longer any thoughts concerning Gabriella or Lisa. His emotions were reduced to a single instinct - kill.

The passage grew wider and brighter as he hunted the source of the woman’s agonizing screams. Nick’s breathing was coarse and brutish as his expanded lungs fed his phenomenal growth. His muscles seemed to become more resilient and energetic with each powerful stride.

Suddenly, he spied an enemy from the corner of his eye, and he immediately assaulted it. The enemy turned out to be the dusty skull of an ancient humanoid. The top of the skull had been pried away so that its brains could be removed. Nick crushed it into bony splinters with his thickset, reptilian foot, while his slanted, elliptical eyes charily inspected the area.

Human skulls and bones were piled as far as he could see. The malignant stench of death assaulted his primitive nostrils, but instead of evoking fear and revulsion, the malodor intensified his murderous instinct. Layers of brittle, centuries-old, gray bone littered the floor like petrified wood littering an ocean shore and crunched beneath his feet.

This was the Cumalodin trophy room. A celebration of thousands of years of carnage.

Nick drew back his black, leathery lips into a snarl and revealed the yellow, dagger-like teeth lining his reptilian jaw. It was killing time.

He charged through the remaining passage and burst into a cavern the size of Carnegie Hall. The milky quartz limestone walls were rutted from centuries of sculpting water, and the cathedral ceiling was webbed with earthquake fractures. Nick’s yellow, hourglass eyes roamed the vast area and stopped at the grotesque, granite sculpture standing at the head of a sacrificial table. The massive figure and bloodstained table were similar to the ones outside the castle in the Lake Griffin grotto. The scene provoked memories of the
Mortal Eclipse
experiments, and Nick’s rage swelled.

Two young Cumalodins scuffled over a few bloody bones in the center of the cavern while two dozen more of the small killing machines snapped and snarled at three figures manacled to the left wall. A powerful hunger surged through his being, but it wasn’t for food. It wanted to inflict death!

Nick sensed there was an invisible force field that kept the creatures at bay and the prisoners from escaping. Lisa, Neo, and President Hanover were safe – for now. Next, he quickly located the shape-shifter. It had taken its human form and grinned malevolently at Nick. It moved closer to the prisoners as if it feared the mutated Nick.

“We’ve been expecting you, Bellamy,” it said. “Let me introduce myself.” It bowed slightly. “I’m Sloan McGrath.”

Surprisingly, Nick found it difficult to respond. His thick, forked tongue wasn’t created for easy speaking.

“Whatever you say,” he managed in a rumbling, bass voice. “You’re the hitch-hiker from the spaceship that crashed in Europe.”

It laughed impassively. “I see you’ve done your homework. Yes, hitchhiker is an apt depiction.” It began pacing, and the young, ravenous Cumalodins scampered out of its way.

As if having received a mental command, the beasts’ heads pivoted toward Nick. Growls rolled from their menacing mouths, and a few aggressive ones moved toward him. Nick shuddered as another tremendous burst of energy fortified his muscles and honed his primordial impulses. Nick snarled savagely at the creatures, and they quickly retreated.

McGrath continued. “I am responsible for the spaceship’s misfortune. I slaughtered the alien crew as we were about to fly by your primitive little planet. You see, I was searching for a world to rule, and your planet fit the bill. By using the Cumalodins as my invincible soldiers, I would have made short work of your puny human resistance, but I didn’t know about the meteor storm that had exiled purebloods and destroyers in this dimension. I hadn’t counted on their remarkable magical abilities.

“I’ll bet you didn’t,” Nick growled.

McGrath pointed to a pair of metallic cylinders. “I have been waiting two hundred of your generations to acquire Alick Tobhor’s elixir so I could revitalize my ancient breed army.” McGrath’s outstretched arm roamed above the heads of his current crop of killers. “After absorbing the elixir, my friends will develop a much stronger protective shield and an unlimited life span. You know, the ancient breed have been used to exterminate planet populations since the beginning of time,” it explained. “They pave the way for alien settlers who don’t even have to sacrifice one of their own race to conquer the worlds they desire.”

“Thanks for the history lesson, but I’ve come for your three prisoners.”

“I’m afraid that I’m not inclined to hand them over to you, Nick. And if you try anything rash, I’ll be forced to remove the energy field protecting your friends and let my hungry pets gorge themselves.” It laughed. “Oh, I know you think you’re fast and could get here before the ancient breed did much damage, but I can assure you that they’ll move quicker.”

“Bellamy, don’t try anything stupid!” President Hanover shouted nervously.

“Nick, save yourself,” Lisa yelled, tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Yeah,” Neo echoed. “If you try to free us, you’ll only get yourself killed. We’re already dead meat.”

Nick appraised the situation as a primordial predator, not an FBI agent or emotional human. He sensed minimal danger from the ancient breed. He could easily slaughter them while they were this small without risk to himself. But if he allowed them to increase their size and strength, they would be formidable enemies. His nostrils sniffed the foul air. They smelled death. Imminent death.

Nick jerked his head toward the Cumalodins worrying the marrow from the meatless bones. “Anybody I know?” he asked, stalling until he could devise a diversion that would allow him to save the captives.

“Just insignificant humans. I doubt whether their identities would interest you.”

“Humor me,” Nick replied, killer urges suffusing his mind.

“A construction foreman by the name of McKutchen, and a worthless medical examiner, George Patrick.” McGrath glanced at the two Cumalodins and pointed. “Just an hour ago, these two were beautiful, exotic women with a rapacious appetite for Agent Doss.” He paused dramatically. “They still have an appetite for Agent Doss, Nick. One snap of my fingers would sound the dinner bell for these two beauties and the death knell for your friend.”

In his current state, Nick wasn’t receptive to verbal threats. They didn’t compute. “And the third?” Nick pressed.

A scowl distorted his face. “A United States Senator, Jim Hollingworth, who had the audacity to claim my property for his own. But enough of this chitchat.” He produced a large syringe filled with a clear liquid.
The elixir
. “Time to give Neo what he’s always dreamed of, Nick.
Power
. Right, Agent Doss?”

“Fuck you and the spaceship you rode in on,” Neo barked.

“Stop!” Nick snarled, barely intelligible.

McGrath ignored him and marched toward the force field.

A young Cumalodin ventured too close to Nick, snapping and growling. Nick’s clawed hand flashed out like a striking serpent and sliced the creature’s neck to bloody ribbons. Nick heaved the limp carcass thirty feet into the frenetic horde of Cumalodins ogling the prisoners and watched the cannibalistic bastards devour the flesh of their own species.

McGrath clapped its hands, mindful not to drop the syringe. “Well, done, Nick. Care to take on the entire brood while I tend to Agent Doss?”

Nick challenged the alien. “How about you and me, McGrath, or whatever you are? Care to dance with death?” His voice was hollow. Soulless.

McGrath trembled with rage but maintained its composure. It wasn’t going to fall for Bellamy’s strategic diversion that would allow his companions in the passage to release the prisoners. “Another time, perhaps.”

Nick’s newly acquired senses detected fear beneath its angry veneer. His blood boiled. It was time to take out the alien intruder. But before Nick could attack the shape-shifter, Glenna Guttentag boldly strode into the cavern.

The old witch stopped and parted her open palms where a green and violet inferno appeared. Glenna hurled the magic conflagration at the shape-shifter while it was still contemplating her surprise entrance. The crackling mass expanded as it traveled, and by the time it collided with the shape-shifter’s human form, the explosion razed the young Cumalodins surrounding McGrath. The intense heat reduced the small creatures to blackened, smoking fossils.

Nick watched the energy barrier protecting the prisoners blink and then disappear. The surviving Cumalodins at the center of the cavern saw it, too. Nick bounded toward the captives like a prehistoric predator. He had to save the vulnerable captives before they became a three-course meal.

Nick had nearly reached his friends when the shape-shifter rose like a Phoenix from the ashes, released an earsplitting screech, and rushed toward Glenna. Nick lumbered to a stop, his primitive brain confused by the futility of the situation.

He couldn’t save everyone.

67

I

n the blink of an eye, the attacking life-form shape-shifted from a human into a fireball, then into a black cloud, and finally into a web-footed, black squid-skinned alien over seven feet tall. The head was eyeless and earless, displaying only a solitary nostril and a fanged crease of a mouth. Four menacing tentacles protruded from its barrel chest and violently whipped their thick, machete talons in every direction.

Hugo materialized behind the alien as its talons split Glenna from head to pelvis. Her twitching, bleeding halves tumbled to the floor in opposite directions. Hugo drove the Duneden Dirk deeply into the alien’s back. Again, it reacted to pain with an earsplitting screech. Hugo made a run for Nick and the prisoners while the wounded shape-shifter writhed and twisted in deathly spasms, spewing oily black blood like a Texas gusher.

Nick reached Lisa first and effortlessly yanked her manacles out of the limestone wall. He did the same for Neo and Hanover while Hugo magically created a wall of flame that kept the vicious Cumalodins at bay.

Suddenly, Tobias Simpkins appeared across the cavern. He wore a long, black robe with a short cape.

“Look out!” Nick warned.

The destroyer waved a hand in their direction, dousing Hugo’s flaming wall. Lisa screamed as the Cumalodins charged, their jaws snapping and clicking. Nick and Hugo exchanged unyielding glances.

To Nick’s chagrin, the Cumalodins had grown since their feeding. He examined his sinewy arms and his tawny-scaled hands with three razor talons for fingers. He flexed them. Time to take his new body for a test drive.

Nick howled fiercely, pounced on the first Cumalodin, and twisted its neck until it snapped and went limp in his hands. It fell onto the cavern floor, stone dead. Hugo kicked and punched at the next one while Hanover cowered against the wall.

Neo pushed Lisa behind him. “Come get some whoopass, you murdering little bastards!” he shouted and waded into the fray with both fists flying.

The youngest beasts circled the group and crept in behind Neo. Lisa yelled to warn Neo as she gestured frantically at the advancing creatures.

“Well, well, my little pretties. You want some of me? Then come and get it!” Neo shouted.

The transformed Mindy and Lurdene Cumalodins stood over twelve feet tall after their recent feeding. Their claws clacked on the rocky floor as they rushed forward. The smaller Cumalodins scattered. Nick joined Neo in fending off their aggressive assault. Neo slammed a right cross into Mindy’s snapping jaw when she lowered her head; she retreated several feet. Nick slipped behind her, sprang onto her back, and tore her throat out, a move reminiscent of his late brother, the
Creeper
. Lurdene wailed and recklessly charged them. Neo saw a gun in McGrath’s abandoned clothes, retrieved it, and leveled the barrel point-blank at Lurdene’s gaping mouth. Three shots blew her mustard-yellow brains out the back of her skull.

Tobias marched angrily through the remaining Cumalodins, throwing them aside. “You’ll never kill all of them before they get you,” he ranted through the deafening snarls and yelps.

Without warning, the Zyloux appeared beside Tobias and shoved the startled destroyer toward the struggling alien. Hugo stepped back to avoid the Zyloux and collided with Hanover, who pushed him forward.

“Protect me!” Hanover screamed. “I’m the president, for godsake!”

Neo shook his head at Hanover’s cowardice and then fearfully confronted the demon guardian. But he needn’t have worried. The Zyloux assailed the remaining Cumalodins, instead. The immature creatures were no match for the powerful demon. Even when several of them leaped on the demon guardian and smothered it with their clawing and biting, it chucked them off one at a time and dismembered them with its rubicund claws. The shape-shifter’s Cumalodin army was annihilated in matter of minutes.

One of the alien’s tentacles finally managed to tug the Duneden Dirk from its back. An angry Tobias Simpkins watched it struggle to stand and directed a volley of blue lightning bolts at his traitorous partner. The alien toppled backwards, howling.

“You goddammed traitor, McGrath! You killed Grant, and now you’re going to pay!” Tobias shouted at the seemingly defenseless, alien life-form.