It didn’t really matter that they had escaped; they would not go far. When night once again spread its glorious wings across the world, he would find those two humans.
When he did, he would kill them.
Slowly.
With that satisfying thought in mind, Moloch leapt from the roof, a few quick thrusts from his wings carrying him up into the brightening sky and across the river to the mansion.
Beneath the boathouse, Sam’s strength finally gave out. The pain and the cold had taken their toll. With dismay he watched as his fingers lost their grip on the support piling, and his body slipped down beneath the surface.
Frantically, Jake grabbed for him, his fingers snaring the folds of Sam’s jacket. He hauled him above the surface and close to his side, keeping Sam’s head above the water through sheer adrenaline-driven strength.
The two of them stared fearfully overhead, every nerve in their bodies tight with anticipation as they waited for the wood above them to splinter beneath the awful force of the creature’s blows, waited for the descending claws to savage their unprotected flesh.
No attack came.
Was it waiting for them to make the next move? To dash out from their protective cover, so it could cut them down in the open?
Still, nothing happened.
“Where is it, Jake?” Sam asked, his fear giving back a little of his energy, enough so that he could cling to the pilings unassisted again.
“I don’t know,” Jake whispered in reply. He hung there in the water, listening intently for some small sign that might detect the presence of the beast.
Nothing came to him.
He glanced up at the roof and noticed something different.
It was easier to see.
Not by much, but certainly better than it had been several moments before. A gray light was seeping through the holes in the roof, allowing him to make out some details of the structure and to see Sam’s face more clearly.
Had the rising sun driven the creature off, like some vampire out of legend? Or was it now crouched above them, out of sight, trying to fool them into believing it had taken off? Maybe it had left, yet was only circling high above, ready to plunge down as they emerged from the water and stood exposed on the bank?
As he debated the question, the light coming in through the roof grew discernibly brighter, and in the end it was this fact that Jake used to make his decision. Jake decided that if the beast were still on the roof waiting for them, then the light would in some way be blocked by its bulk. At the very least, it would throw a shadow that they would be able to see. Therefore, the creature must have taken to the air. If that was true, and they moved quickly, they might just be able to get out and onto solid ground before it attacked.
It was only a slim chance, sure, but it was all they had.
Jake hoped they could pull it off.
He explained his idea to Sam, who by know was too weak to protest even if he’d wanted to. Jake slipped his arms under Sam’s and around his chest.
“All right,” he said to his friend, “a quick breath, then down we go. I’ll do all the work, you just hold on. Okay?”
Sam nodded.
“I’ll get us to the surface. Once we’re there, get yourself another deep breath, just in case that thing is waiting for us and we need to dive again. If we do, I’ll get us back here under cover, and we’ll think of something else.”
Jake paused, looked Sam over, then said, “Are you sure you can do this?”
“Let’s do it already.”
Behind him, expression hidden from view, Jake smiled.
Maybe they’d get out of this alive after all.
Breathing a silent prayer that the beast had truly left, Jake said, “Okay. One. Two. Three.”
Each took a deep breath, and they dived.
31
REPERCUSSIONS
“We’ve got to go back.”
From his seat at the kitchen table, where Katelynn was disinfecting the wounds on his shoulder and preparing to cover them with a heavy padding of surgical gauze, Sam looked over at his friend.
“What?” he asked, incredulous.“What?”
Jake turned to face him. “We have to go back,” he said more forcibly this time. The shocked, vacant expression he wore since they escaped the creature was gone from his face, and in its place Sam could see the first shining gleam of determination that he knew from past experience always meant trouble.
Sam wasn’t going to be persuaded. As a matter of fact, he’d had just about enough of Jake’s bullshit.
“No way, Jake. Not on your fucking life. Time to let somebody else take care of the mess. Gabriel was crazy to think we could handle it!”
Jake shook his head in denial. “We’ve got to stop this thing. We’re the only ones who know about it.”
Sam snorted in disgust. “So we tell someone else. Anyone. The cops, the National Guard, I don’t really care.” Sam seemed to remember that that had been the original plan. Prove it exists, then get someone else involved. He said so to Jake.
Jake didn’t immediately answer, so Sam took his silence for agreement and turned his attention back to examining the cuts on his shoulder. The Nightshade’s claws had sliced through his leather jacket and left four deep furrows across his shoulder and three inches down his back.
He winced as Katelynn began applying the bandage, and turned to watch her to take his mind off the fact that he’d come within inches of dying. She kept her mouth shut during the exchange between him and Jake, and upon seeing the look on her face, Sam instantly knew why.
She was pissed. Angrier than he’d ever seen her, in fact. She’d been at Jake’s house when they’d returned, pacing the front walk in sharp, hard strides, but on seeing their condition she’d followed them inside and simply begun tending them without a word. Now her wall of calm seemed to be eroding, and Jake’s comments just made the stones start falling faster. Sam spared another glance in Jake’s direction and discovered to his dismay that his friend had retreated a thousand miles away, if the dazed look on his face was any indication.
A sudden pain flared in his shoulder, and he flinched.
“Hold still!” Katelynn said sharply, gripping his arm tightly in order to reinforce her words.
“That hurts,” he replied through teeth clenched against the pain, but he did as he was told. He knew he wasn’t about to get any sympathy from her. She said that they were liable to get killed if they went, and they had certainly come awfully close to making her prediction come true. Katelynn didn’t like it when her advice was ignored.
Jake broke Sam’s thoughts.
“Fine. I’ll go alone.”
Sam surged to his feet, ready to tell Jake what a thickheaded fool he was, but Katelynn beat him to it.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” she screamed at him suddenly. She moved closer, still yelling, each word seeming to Sam like a hammerblow directed at Jake’s head. They madehim flinch, and he wasn’t even the target of her attack.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet? This… thing… kills people! That’sall it does. Kills people! It’s stronger than you, faster than you, and about four hundred times deadlier than you. You almost got yourself killed. Now you want to go back and try to fight this thing? How? With what? Haven’t you had enough already?”
Katelynn was standing directly in front of Jake by the time she finished, her hands clenched into fists at her sides as if to prevent her from physically beating the idea out of him. Sam waited for Jake to blow his cool in return, to lash back at her in self-defense; but, after several long, tense moments, when he finally did answer her, his voice was calm and even.
Hearing that tone, Sam knew they’d lost, even before his friend’s words had sunk fully into his mind.
“You’re right, Katelynn. This thing, this Nightshade, does kill people. It’s killed six in the last few days alone. Six that we know of. Who knows how many others? No one else in this town will believe us if we tell them. That’s why it’s up to us. We’ll get the pistol from my trailer, search Riverwatch until we find where this thing goes to rest during the day, and then put a couple of bullets through its head. End of story.”