Baba Yaga stood at the far end of the street, and cried in victory as the Jeep bent double under the pressure of the tree. The hood popped and folded like a book. Oil and gasoline spewed out as the engine cracked. Baba Yaga shot up her arm, and the oak tree sprang up straight. The branches shivered, then settled. They weren’t getting away from her again.
The ancient witch flicked back her cloak and banged her stick on the icy ground. The sound echoed between the concrete walls and spread out across the still night sky. In the near distance it was answered by howls. The Polenitsy were on their way, coming from all directions. Baba Yaga lifted her stick and cried out to her werewolves.
Billi took a few steps before falling down. Her head felt heavy and swollen. Ivan slung his arm under hers and brought her to her feet. She rested against him, her head throbbing.
“Bloody hell,” whispered Billi. The moon rose, fat and full, bathing the tomb of mankind’s nuclear folly with its dead light.
Chernobyl.
The old reactor was encased with huge concrete blocks. Millions of tons had been used to bury the radioactive heart of the disaster, and the sarcophagus was nearly a hundred feet high. Dark patches of leaked contaminants smeared the sides of the walls, and some areas had been crudely patched with steel panels, themselves now deeply corroded. The perimeter walls were topped with rusty barbed wire.
The city, now the domain of beasts, erupted with fevered cries. Then, from the side streets, the Polenitsy emerged. Wolves, howling and snapping their yellow fangs, ran at them. The Jeep’s one unbroken headlight lit a bright path along the road, straight to them. The wolves wove in and out of the darkness. Billi’s hand fell on her bow and a handful of spilled arrows, but not the one she wanted. She needed the stone-tipped one, and began searching. Where was it?
“Billi.” Ivan tapped her shoulder, the arrow in his hand. “You should keep a closer eye on your gear.”
She could have kissed him. Instead she snatched the arrow and put it to her bow. The witch was over forty yards away. She needed to get a lot closer.
Billi glanced at her dad as he stepped out between the wolves and the car. He’d cast off his coat so he could fight freely, and the Templar Sword rested comfortably in his hand. Lance stood beside him, slowly turning his two swords, loosening his wrists.
“Billi!” shouted Ivan as the gunfire exploded.
Armed men ran down the road toward them. Koshchey led, flanked by two Bogatyrs, rifle in his hands. The other men drew hand weapons and met the werewolves, their steel against the lycanthropes’ claws. Koshchey pointed at them, and a group of Bogatyrs broke into a run.
They’ve come for Vasilisa, thought Billi. She glanced at Ivan. And revenge. Koshchey had been humiliated and Ivan was still alive.
“Come on!” Ivan grabbed Vasilisa and Billi, and they fled into a building across from the plant’s main gate while Arthur and Lance fought back-to-back.
The moon’s light shone through the broken wall of the single-story office they’d entered. Billi stepped deep into the shadow, but the moonlight shone into her soul, on the Beast Within.
The arrow clattered on the wooden floor.
Her fingers curl. Billi stares, breath caught, as black hairs push through her skin and begin to cover the backs of her hands. She screams until her throat is torn and hoarse as her spine stretches against the mail. She wants to tear at the armor, desperate to rip it off, for the metal burns her and the clothes smother.
Ivan grabbed Billi’s arms and held her up. He stared at Billi, but her eyes filled with a red haze, and his face faded. She could see the heat rising from his exhalations, hear the warm blood running through his body. She smelled the adrenaline, the fear, and the desire that soaked him.
“Stay with us,” he urged. “You are not a beast.”
I am not a beast.
She repeated it over and over.
The floor trembled, and long cracks broke along the wall and ceiling. Brittle plaster sprinkled down, and the floorboards under their feet splintered. Vasilisa curled up and sobbed.
“The goddess is here.”
The fighting had stopped. Billi shook her head, trying to focus. The trees outside creaked, and the wind rustled through the empty streets.
Billi’s hair flickered as the breeze rose. The office quivered and the desks and chairs rattled and slid across the room.
Deep long cracks opened along the walls, and the roof rattled its tiles loose. The floorboards bent and snapped one by one. Then the walls exploded. Billi threw herself toward Vasilisa, but something fell from above, knocking her aside. Ivan shouted, but was drowned out as the building crumbled. All Billi could do was cover her head with her arms as the ceiling collapsed and she vanished under the avalanche of tiles and timber. She choked on the dust that filled her lungs, and a deep drumming echoed in her ears.
The avalanche seemed to go on and on. Billi, submerged in debris, had managed to crawl under a gap made by two cupboards landing on each other.
Where’s Ivan?
Where’s Vasilisa?
She tried to call out, but could only cough. Eventually, when the noise had subsided, Billi began to drag herself out. A layer of broken roof slates covered the rubble, and Billi started sliding them aside.
“Vasilisa?” Billi called.
A deep black mass rose from the ruined building. Tap tap tap wenta staff on the cracked concrete and rotten wood. Black eyes, old and so full of evil, glistened with victory. Baba Yaga used her claws to dig through the rubble. She tossed large lumps of brick and block behind her like packing foam.
“Vasilisa!” Billi cried as she struggled to push herself free of the debris.
Baba Yaga reached into the dark pit and dragged Vasilisa out of the devastation.
42
ARTHUR AND LANCE WERE SURROUNDED BY WOLVES. A Bogatyr charged Baba Yaga, his rifle blazing. The bullets merely sparked against her skin. With one hand she snapped her fingers around his neck and popped his head off. The body stumbled another two steps, then slumped, its neck pumping scarlet into the dirty snow. Vasilisa screamed as Baba Yaga dragged her away from the collapsed building.
The Bogatyrs were retreating. Men and wolves lay dead, some killed fleeing, others locked in their death fury. But the wolves were slowly gaining the upper hand. Billi watched as two werewolves broke through a gap and launched themselves at her father. His sword took one in the gullet, but the second knocked him down. Lance’s swords stabbed into the wolf’s side, and the monster was tossed away.
Gwaine, Mordred, and Gareth came charging down the street. Their arrows all spent, they launched into the melee, Gwaine swinging his ax in great skull-smashing arcs as they fought their way to the Templar Master.
Billi tried to heave herself up, but every muscle felt shredded. She managed to slide a beam far enough to crawl out of the rubble. Her armor was in tatters, and blood dripped from a cut on her forehead. The taste of it stung her lips.
Baba Yaga took her prisoner away from the ruined building as Vasilisa screamed and struggled in the old crone’s grip.
Red leaped across the broken rubble. She sniffed the ground and her emerald eyes rose to meet Billi’s.
Rage filled Billi’s heart. Her head swam with fury.
“Get out of my way,” Billi snarled.
Red stalked closer. Then the broken concrete between them parted, and Ivan reached out, revolver in his hand. He fired at Red, point-blank and straight into her belly. She stumbled back as he put two rounds into her.
But she did not fall.
Ivan rose to his feet, both hands on the gun, as she sprang. He pushed the revolver barrel against Red’s stomach, and two muffled explosions went off in rapid succession. Red rammed her claws into his chest as she roared with savage hatred. Ivan tilted backward, firing again and catching the werewolf in the chest.
Red spasmed, and bright blood spilled from her abdomen as her body changed. The hair began to sink away into her pale flesh, and the limbs twisted under the pulsing skin. Ivan lay on his back, fingers still locked around the gun, his chest torn and bleeding heavily. Billi stepped toward him and touched his face. His eyes closed and he sighed.