Chapter Twenty-four
“T hey’re here,” Alex said in a voice that was somehow his and yet other.
Josef couldn’t speak. No words would come.
Those eyes, all he could see in the dark was those eyes. They moved closer. Josef stepped back, holding out his free hand to keep Alex away.
“What is it?” Alex’s voice quivered strangely. “You look… You’re afraid.”
Swallowing, Josef said, “Your eyes…”
Another sound drowned his words, the screech of unoiled hinges. The door. Alex’s eyes turned away, and Josef couldn’t see a bloody thing.
He could hear, though, and he could smell as something shuffled through that door. Another pair of ghostly blue eyes turned on him with a throaty hiss.
In the dark, Josef was useless, and that was impossible. Shoving the gun into the waistband of his trousers, he yanked the torch from his coat pocket and switched it on.
Alex hissed, raising an arm against the light.
Arrested halfway through the open door, the ghoul stopped too. It was—or had been—a young soldier, and still wore the vestiges of its uniform, torn and bloody with a gaping, blackened wound in its belly. It snarled, mouth opening to reveal spikes of bloody, inhuman teeth.
Its head moved strangely from side to side, nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air before its gaze fixed on Josef. The initial bright flare of torchlight was dimming noticeably, the beam shaking in his hand.
For a few frozen moments, they stood there in a standoff.
Then the ghoul pounced, launching itself at Josef with a howl. And Alex barrelled into it, rugby-tackling the creature to the ground. They went down in a confusion of limbs, wrestling and rolling on the ground.
“Pin it down!” Josef yelled, dropping the torch, its light skimming across the cold concrete floor. He dove in, trying to grab the creature’s legs and hold it still. Fuck, how the hell were they going to get blood from this thing?
The ghoul stench of rot filled the small passageway, thickening the air until Josef felt he could hardly breathe. His stomach revolted, but he ignored it. Alex had the upper hand now, rolling the creature onto its belly and sitting astride its back. Josef held onto its legs for all he was worth.
In the dim torchlight, the silver blade of a knife gleamed in Alex’s hand. “Give me the vial,” he barked in that strange, not-quite-him voice.
Easier said than done. The ghoul kicked and struggled, and it was all Josef could do to keep hold of its flailing legs.
“Now!” Alex barked. “Come on!”
Cursing, Josef got one arm around both the creature’s shins and reached into his pocket for the glass vial Lottie had given them. Alex had his back to Josef, legs clamped around the ghoul’s back. One of its arms was trapped at its side. The other Alex pinned down with one hand and with a flash of silver stabbed the blade into its flesh.
The creature screamed and bucked, nearly throwing Alex off. But not quite.
“Now!” Alex shouted, holding his hand back behind him. “Give it to me!”
Removing the cork stopper with his teeth, Josef slapped the vial into Alex’s hand.
In the dim light, the ghoul’s blood looked sluggish and black. Alex pressed the vial against the wound in its arm, and the creature’s viscous blood crept into it.
Lying across its legs, Josef fought to keep the ghoul still long enough for Alex to finish. It snarled and hissed and howled, and to Josef’s ears, it sounded like a wolf calling to its pack.
“Hurry up,” he hissed.
“What do you think I’m bloody well doing?”
And then, echoing through the tunnels, came a second howl—an answer to the first. Then a third. A fourth.
Josef’s hair stood on end. “We have to go!”
“Here!” Alex stuck his hand back again, his fingers bloody and the vial only half full. It would have to be enough.
After wedging the cork back in, Josef grabbed the vial and shoved it into his pocket.
“On three,” he said. “Let it go and run for it. Back down the stairs.”
Alex grunted in agreement and yanked the knife out of the creature’s arm. “One,” he said, fisting his hand into the ghoul’s hair. “Two.” He lifted its head. “Three!” And slammed the creature face-first into the concrete floor, then leapt off its back.
Josef released its legs, snatching up the torch as he rolled to his feet.
“Go!” Alex shoved Josef ahead of him towards the stairs.
He went, snatching a quick glimpse of the ghoul struggling to its feet before he was pelting downstairs, Alex on his heels.
And the ghoul at their backs…
Josef was flying, but it wasn’t fast enough. He could hear the ghoul, smell it. Alex shoved his back. “Faster!”
Fuck.
He stumbled, missing a couple of steps, only keeping from falling by grabbing the handrail. His shoulder wrenched as he caught himself, momentum slamming him into the wall. He looked back, flashing the torchlight behind him, and caught the moment the ghoul launched itself at him.
Not at Alex, but at Josef.
In the madly dancing light, it appeared to fly like a demon, gored teeth and inhuman eyes flashing in the dark.
Yelling, Josef threw up his arms to protect his face, stumbling backward down the stairs.
And Alex launched himself forward, right into the path of the ghoul, taking the full brunt of its attack.
They went down together in a tangle of arms and legs, crashing past Josef and down the stairs. Alex gave a sharp cry as they tumbled arse over tit and slammed to the ground at the bottom of the stairwell.
By some miracle, Josef still had his hand torch. Neither Alex nor the ghoul moved beneath its dimming light. Alex lay beneath the ghoul which was splayed over his body. Torch in one hand, gun in the other, Josef hurried down the rest of the stairs. In the distance, he could hear the howls of other creatures. They didn’t have long.
“Alex,” he hissed, drawing closer. Alex lay sprawled on his back, head tilted to one side as if sleeping. Or worse. Josef shook his shoulder. “Alex!”
His eyes opened.
Josef recoiled from the pale eerie blue gaze looking up at him. “Go,” Alex said roughly. “Run.”
“Yes, come on!” He tugged at Alex’s arm, trying to pull him out from beneath the ghoul’s inert body. Fuck, was it dead? If it was, did that mean the blood was no good?
Alex hissed and shook Josef off. “I can’t,” he said in an odd, breathless voice. “Go.”
Josef stared at him. “What?”
“I can’t—”
“You bloody well can!” Josef dropped the torch and the gun, grabbing his shoulders with both hands and heaving.
Alex screamed.
“Fuck!” Josef all but jumped out of his skin. “What’s wrong?”
For a moment, the only sounds were Alex’s laboured breaths. Then he gasped. “Leg. Broken, I think.”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
And then the ghoul began to stir.
Josef stopped breathing; the walls were closing in, the roof collapsing. All their options shutting down. Fists clenched in his hair, he screamed in silent, wordless despair.
Alex grabbed his leg. “Joe...” With the torch discarded on the floor, all he could see of Alex were those cursed eyes. “It’s time.”
Staring at him, Josef shook his head. “No.” His voice sounded like rust.
“I can’t walk,” Alex ground out. “I can’t escape.”
“But I have the blood!”
“Too late.” Alex’s eyes closed, then opened again. “Please. You promised.”
“Well, I shouldn’t have!”
Alex stretched his arm out, fumbling for the gun which lay next to the torch. “Then give it to me. I’ll do it myself.”
“No!” Josef snatched it up, backing away. “Fuck, Alex, no. We have the blood; we can cure you!”
“There’s no time!” Alex shouted, breaking off into another cry of pain.
“Fuck that.” Stuffing the weapon back into his belt, Josef started dragging the semi-conscious ghoul off Alex.
Josef was hurting him, he knew, but it was betterthan letting him die. Or killing him. When Alex was free, Josef grabbed the torch to examine his leg. The broken one was obvious; a bloody rent in Alex’s trousers revealed the tip of a bone poking through his skin, just below the right knee.
Half sitting up, Alex took one look and collapsed back down. “Christ,” he said thinly.
“All the stuff you’ve seen, and that makes you faint?”
“Just give me the fucking gun,” Alex growled.
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“I can’t move!”
“You’ve got one good leg,” Josef said. “Use it.”
With a great deal of struggle, Josef got Alex upright, one arm around his shoulders. He tried not to think of how far they had to walk.
At the foot of the stairs, the ghoul gave a low hiss, apparently waking up. “Come on,” Josef hissed, pulling Alex towards the door.
They moved agonisingly slowly. Literally, in Alex’s case. He couldn’t put any weight on his broken leg, having to hop, his breathing very fast and leaning more and more heavily against Josef. He wasn’t a small man, either. Taller than Josef, broader. Heavier.
They stumbled out of the stairwell and into the corridor beyond, shutting the door. There was nothing to wedge it shut with—it didn’t even have a lock—and the corridor ahead looked endless.
“Joe,” Alex said urgently, and then twisted away and threw up.
The pain, Josef knew. Shock.
It was hopeless, he saw that now. Couldn’t deny it as he tried, as gently as he could, to help Alex to the ground, resting his back against the corridor wall. He sat there, very still, face damp with cold sweat and breathing slow, controlled breaths. In the torchlight, his skin glistened corpse white.
Throat thick, eyes blurring, Josef said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do.”
Without opening his eyes, Alex said, “Yes, you do.”
The gun in his waistband felt like a live thing, like a grenade with its pin pulled.
“Please,” Alex said softly. “While there’s still time.”
Josef’s heart pounded slow and heavy, every beat a moment lost. His fingers closed around the grip of the gun, and with a shaking hand, he pulled it free.
From behind the door came scrabbling sounds.
He lifted the shaking gun, bile rising in his throat, vision blurring. Tears fell hot on his cheek.
“It’s all right,” Alex said softly. “We gave it our best shot.”
No , Josef wanted to scream. It’s not all right. It’s all fucking wrong .
The gun shook more violently, and he grabbed it with both hands to steady it. If he had to do this, he couldn’t fuck it up.
Something heavy thumped against the door. Soon, the ghoul would come through and be on them.
On him.
It would have killed him already if Alex hadn’t got in the way.
He stared at Alex, at his deathly skin, the slits of blue beneath his half-lidded eyes. The bone protruding from his leg.
The ghoul had attacked Josef, not Alex. Even though Alex had been closest, it had launched itself past Alex to reach Josef.
His mind cleared, sharpened, and he shot to his feet. “Stay here.”
Alex’s eyes flew open. “What?” he said. “For Christ’s sake, Joe. End it!”
“No.” He lowered the gun. “No. I can’t do that. I can’t kill you. I won’t.”
“Then let me do it myself.” He reached out for the gun. “Come on, give it to me.”
But Josef stepped backward. “I’m sorry, no.”
Alex’s face contorted in rage, barely recognisable. “You fucking coward !”
It punched the breath out of him.
You fucking coward! You’re a bloody disgrace to your family!
His father’s wrath echoed across the years, his contempt mirrored in Alex’s furious face. I’m not! He wanted to scream it. I’m not a coward! But that would do as little good now as it had that awful day on Goulston Street.
“I’m coming back for you,” he said instead, voice rasping with distress. “I’m going to save you.”
“I won’t be here!” Alex spat. “Don’t you understand? I’m holding on by my fucking fingernails.” He slammed one palm into the side of his own head. “ I’ll be gone!”
“You won’t.” Josef took another step backward. “You’ll hold on. Fucking hold on, all right?”
“Josef...” Alex’s voice shook, fury ebbing away. And that was worse; now he just sounded frightened. “I trusted you. Please, don’t leave me like this...”
A squeal of door hinges rang through the tunnel.
They were out of time. Shoving the gun back into his waistband, Josef took one last look at Alex. “Hold on,” he said.
And then he ran, Alex’s furious curses chasing him into the dark.