And when the sun had gotten to the ten-minute mark, I saw something flash in a valley far below, a valley very nearly hidden beneath a canopy of trees. A flickering flame. I circled it, trying to get a bead on it, but it was mostly hidden at the bottom of two sheer rock walls.
And that’s when someone screamed.
I tucked in my great, leathery wings, and dove.
Chapter Thirty-nine
The canopy was too thick for my wingspan.
I alighted, instead, on an overhanging rock that afforded me a view into the narrow valley—and what I saw couldn’t have been more strange.
There wasn’t just one fire, but many. Most were attached to poles and scattered between the sheer cliff walls. There, to my left and what would be south, was a small cabin. Perhaps the kill cabin, perhaps not. I didn’t know.
Most interesting was the massive gate that sealed off entry into the valley—itself about as long as a football field. If I had to guess, the iron gate was a few dozen feet tall. The canyon walls that rose up starkly to the east and west were nearly sheer, difficult to climb, even for the most experienced mountaineer, and probably for a werewolf, too.
Most disturbing were the many, many men who now roamed at the bottom of the valley. All were naked, and all were very, very close to fully transforming into werewolves. I counted eight of them. Unfortunately, my weapon only carried six shots. And there, milling with the others, was Gunther. He, too, was nearly fully transformed. I didn’t recognize the others, but I was willing to bet Kingsley would have.
I thought I’d just discovered the source of their reluctance to speak with Kingsley. After all, a good representation of the werewolves of Southern California were here in this valley. My guess was, these were werewolves who preferred to consume live prey, unlike Kingsley who preferred the taste of the rotting and dead.
My eyes caught something else. There, staked to a pole in the center of the valley, was the object of the eight circling, partially-turned werewolves: a woman I could only guess was Elise. Her eyes were closed and she was weeping nearly uncontrollably. I didn’t blame her. After all, in a few minutes, she would be dead.
Behind me, out of sight, the sun was nearly set. I had, at best, five minutes.
The valley appeared to open beneath the thick forest canopy, as many of the trees grew straight out from the sheer rock walls. Perhaps there would be room to fly below, I didn’t know. But there was no way I was breaking through that tree canopy, not with this wingspan. No, from here, I would have to go at it alone as a human.
I closed my eyes, saw the image of my Samantha Moon self standing in the center of the flame, and a moment later, I was squatting there on the rocks, naked. But I wasn’t naked for long. One thing was for damn certain: I wasn’t going to fight eight werewolves naked. I dressed in seconds.
Now standing on the rock outcropping, fully clothed and holding the Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum in my right hand, I considered my options. The partially-turned werewolves were much too far for me to squeeze off an accurate shot. Not to mention they were pacing and jumping and clawing the ground and their faces and each other.
They could smell me, too. Already, some of them were sniffing the air, and looking around wildly. The sun was just a minute or so from setting, and I knew what I had to do.
I closed my eyes...and saw the single flame...
Chapter Forty
A hot wind blasted over me as I focused on the single flame.
Last year, Talos had taught me that even I could go to the moon, using the single flame as a portal. After all, if I could summon him from another dimension, and summon me out of this world and into his, then why I couldn’t I summon myself elsewhere? And so I had, and I had frolicked on the moon, no doubt giving one or two unlucky astronomers a heart attack.
Later, I had tested teleporting on earth, and teleported my giant bat self to a snow-covered peak far, far away from here, high in the Alaskan mountains. In fact, I had gone there a few more times, sitting there on an unknown ledge, unseen by human eyes, unexplored, too, no doubt, as I could not imagine any man making his way up there.
But this...this was different. I had never tried to teleport in my human form. In fact, I had never even considered it possible. That is, until I’d seen Dracula himself do it...and he seemed to indicate that I could do it, too.
We’ll see, I thought.
The flame was empty for now, flickering there in the forefront of my thoughts...waiting for me to give it a command. Waiting and flickering.
The growling from below intensified. The poor girl had been reduced to whimpering. Why shouldn’t she? Here be monsters. Eight of them, in fact. Nine, if you counted me.
Within the flame, I imagined my landing spot, a spot just before the woman chained to the pole. I saw the spot clearly in the flame...and felt myself rush toward it.
When I opened my eyes again, I looked up into the startled face of a weeping woman. Her mouth opened into a scream, and then she did just that: Screamed bloody murder over and over again.
I stood and turned and pointed my weapon at the first creature charging toward me.
Chapter Forty-one
My plan wasn’t to fight all of them.
Not now, not here. Not like this. And not with only six silver bullets. With eight circling werewolves, the odds weren’t in my favor.
No, the plan was to grab her and get the hell of Dodge.
Or out of this valley of death.
The sun, I knew, was just a few seconds from setting. I knew this as I always knew this, just as the creatures before me knew this, too. We were all slaves to the sun, who was the enemy of the darkness within us. As such, I was always, always aware of its movement through the sky, whether I could see it or not.
All of them were damn close to changing. Most seemed like they were in excruciating pain.
Except for the one charging me now. Although not fully transformed, he seemed to have the most wits about him. Lucky for me, he’d spotted me almost as soon as I’d appeared.
I had hoped that the precious few seconds I had left of the sunlight could be used to untie the girl and teleport our asses out of here.
Instead, I found myself drawing a bead on the creature charging, the half-man, half were-beast, who ran at me with surprising speed. I could only imagine just how fast they would be once fully transformed.
But these thoughts were fleeting and mostly drowned out by the creature’s growl and the woman screaming behind me, as I leveled the gun and aimed for his heart.
And pulled the trigger.
* * *
The shot was true.
The racing man clutched his chest and lurched forward. His momentum sent him tumbling over the ground. He gasped once, twice, and then lay still. Then, before our very eyes, he transformed back into a naked, middle-aged man. I couldn’t see his face, and that was just as well. A very dark and oily shadow rose up from him, swirling, and then the wind seem to catch hold of it, and dispersed it into oblivion. But I knew it wasn’t gone. Not entirely. It would wait for another victim, and start its accursed life all over again. It was the way of the dark masters.