“Then you’ll want to have your big gun ready,” she said, and she opened the front door. According to her app, Odette’s temporary address was two minutes’ drive away. “Let’s run.”
They ran, taking care to keep to one side of the street. Out of the corner of her eye, Felicity saw a flicker of green and yellow as a creature let itself down from a roof.
“Keep going!” Cawthorne said to her as he stopped and turned to face it. “I’ll take care of it!”
“Thanks,” gasped Felicity as she ran on, but she didn’t think he heard her. Behind her, there were rifle reports, then silence. She couldn’t even look back to see what had happened; she had to keep on running. Then she heard footsteps and tried to speed up. She fumbled for her gun, ready to swing around and fire.
“It’s me!” shouted Cawthorne from behind her. “Keep running! They don’t respond well to getting shot in the middle of the face!” He drew level to her. A bit fitter than me, she acknowledged. Rounding the corner onto Odette’s street, they saw two creatures prowling about outside one of the houses. “Machine guns!” barked Cawthorne. “Faces!” The creatures whirled toward them, and the two Checquy operatives slowed as they brought up their guns and fired.
Cawthorne was correct — the middle of the creatures’ faces, like the napes of their necks, seemed vulnerable to bullets. The two they shot fell to the ground almost instantly.
“That’s Odette’s house!” Felicity wheezed. There were creature-size holes in the wall — Why make more than one hole? she thought — and the two operatives eased their way through them. Maybe those we killed made the holes, she thought hopefully. Cawthorne silently touched her hand and pointed upward. There were more holes punched in the ceiling. They’re really not very clever monsters. She heard movement above but couldn’t tell if it was human or otherwise. Guns at the ready, they went up the stairs.
The landing was empty, but there were no holes in the ceiling. So they might not have gotten into the attic yet, she thought. She was about to call out quietly for Odette when two of the creatures stalked out of a bedroom into the hallway. Ohhhh, shit. The two pairs looked at each other, and then Cawthorne said from behind her, “Shoot ’em.”
Felicity immediately pulled the trigger, but, with that horrible quickness, the creatures had ducked back into the bedroom.
Advance or wait? she wondered. There was a crash behind her. She whirled to see that one of the creatures had punched through the wall of the corridor, emerged between the two operatives, and smacked Cawthorne’s gun out of his hand. Now the Retainer was backing away, holding his hand against his chest in a manner that suggested all was not well inside. The creature stalked toward Cawthorne, ignoring Felicity. The sniper looked at her and mouthed, Run! Then the monster slapped out, slamming him against the wall.
Run, she thought. What a good idea. Instead, she stepped forward, aimed the gun at the nape of the creature’s neck — I’ve been here before — and fired. The creature jerked, went to its knees, then fell facedown on the floor. Cawthorne slid down the wall next to it and looked up at Felicity.
“Where’s the other one?” he said weakly. Felicity whirled around and saw the second monster coming into the hallway. She fired — or she would have if she’d had any bullets left. Just as she dropped the gun and clasped both hands around her club, a noise came from the ceiling above them.
Everyone, including the monster, looked up.
Then they looked back at each other.
The creature cocked its head, gathered itself, and leapt up, punching through the plaster. Felicity heard Odette screaming. “No!”
Where’s the ladder? Where’s the hatch? She saw it set into the ceiling down the hall and ran to it. Behind her, Cawthorne was calling something, but she was too focused on pulling the steps down and scrambling into the dim attic.
Burrows was dead, she saw that immediately. His body lay broken by the hole in the floor. Odette was farther back, where the roof angled down. The creature prowled toward her. The Grafter girl was brandishing a scalpel in one hand, and a spur projected from her other wrist. She looked terrified.
The creature turned to Felicity, and Odette made a break for it. As she darted forward, the beast spun and raked her back with its fingers. It had no claws that Felicity could see, but under its touch, the material of Odette’s coat parted, and then there was a horrendous fanning spray of bright red blood. Odette collapsed facedown onto the floor.
“No! Motherfucker!” Felicity screamed and lunged forward. There wasn’t room to swing her club, but she jabbed it at the creature’s knee. The club glanced off and she lost her grip on it, but it made the creature pause, and she wrapped her arms around its wet neck and hauled it backward, tangling her legs around it so that it came down onto her. Her breath was knocked out of her. The monster scrambled to get up, but Felicity twisted and kicked out wildly, not letting it find purchase. “I will kill you,” she said through gritted teeth. She scrabbled with one hand for the knife taped to her other arm. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw Odette moving a little.
Still alive, she thought.
“Get away!” Felicity said, wheezing. Odette didn’t get away. Instead, the Grafter got to her knees and crawled over. She put her hand to the struggling creature’s chest and felt about. Then she put the point of her scalpel to the middle of its torso and shoved up. The blade merely scratched across its slimy hide. “It’s useless — go!” Odette set her face and pushed her sleeves back, and Felicity saw the muscles in her arm jerk and shift unnaturally under the skin. The Grafter winced in pain, and then she bore down on the blade once more. The instrument slid into the monster.
The creature stopped its struggles for a moment, as if surprised, but then resumed them. It flung its head back and missed giving Felicity’s skull a hammer blow by centimeters.
“A lovely effort,” said Felicity through clenched teeth, “but please go!” Odette pulled the scalpel out and held up her other hand, and her spur slid out. She plunged it into the cut, and her brow furrowed. Poison, thought Felicity. Maybe... The creature tensed, and then kept fighting. Felicity’s muscles were tiring, and the monster’s strength was getting the better of her. “More!” gasped Felicity. “Use everything!” Odette pushed the other spur in. The creature was pushing up off the floor. Odette’s face twitched, and the monster faltered. “Again!”
And it all stopped.
Oh, thank Christ, thought Felicity. The monster lay limp, not even twitching. With an effort, she rolled it off her. Odette was on her knees, breathing heavily, her head bowed. She helped Felicity sit up, and then the two women held each other tightly.
It was unclear who was more shocked by the hug, but neither let go immediately.
When they drew back, Felicity saw blood all over her hands.
“Your wound!” she exclaimed in horror, running her hands over Odette’s back. “Lie down on your stomach, we need to get pressure on it!”
“It’s fine, it’s not me,” said Odette. “It’s just my jacket.”
“Your jacket?”
The Grafter girl held up a fold of her coat. “It’s woven crab cells,” she said. “It can solidify into armor, although apparently it’s not quite strong enough to resist these things.”
“You nearly gave me a heart attack,” said Felicity. “Are you okay?” She noticed that the Grafter’s right arm was hanging weakly.
“I think I tore some muscles in my arm,” said Odette. “I had to rearrange them to get the scalpel in, and I couldn’t do it properly. They’re not designed to give extra strength but I wrenched them into a position that let me do it.” Felicity winced.
“Are you right-handed?”
“Usually,” said Odette. She wrinkled her nose. “But not at the moment.”