Winter Halo (Outcast 2)

“No ghosts,” he bit back. “Not in Chaos.”

“Why in Rhea not?” I leapt over a log but slipped on the leaf matter beyond it and wrenched a leg muscle. I cursed loudly but ran on.

“Because in a city filled with shifters and outcasts, déchet ghosts might not be able to resist the impulse to extract a little vengeance.”

He was pulling ahead of me now. I cursed again and reached for more speed. “If they wanted vengeance, they would have taken it against you and the others when we attacked the vampire nest.”

“By the time we’d arrived, their energy was well and truly depleted. That would not be the case here.”

“But—”

“No ghosts!”

And with that, his form became fluid, moving from human to that of a black panther—one with faint, almost tigerlike white stripes. Another result of our merging, obviously, and one that made me wonder if I might now be able to take tiger form. While the DNA of a white tiger had been used in my creation, I’d never been designed to shift into that form, for whatever reason.

It was possible that the mixing of our DNA now meant that I could—but it wasn’t something I was about to explore at this very moment. My first body shift had been something of a harrowing experience, and it had left me weak for days. Given that I was already at low tide when it came to strength, risking an attempt into a new—and unfamiliar—form wouldn’t be the brightest of moves.

But it wasn’t like I didn’t have another option. I sucked in the night as I ran and drew it deep into my lungs. The vampire within me rose at its touch, and in very little time my flesh had become little more than dark matter. I zoomed forward, Cat and Bear at my side. While I normally would have sent them back to the safety of the bunker, I had a bad feeling the vampires in Chaos were only interested in one thing—Penny.

Jonas might have said no ghosts, but he’d meant the soldiers, not my little ones. And I certainly had no intention of making a rearguard attack on the vampires—Nuri and Jonas could take care of that. My goal was Penny herself. The bastards weren’t going to reclaim her if I could help it—and protecting her was certainly something Cat and Bear could help with.

We caught up with Jonas just as he was leaping the muddy trickle of water that was the Barra River, and a low, annoyed snarl chased after us as we continued on. Up ahead, the sounds of fighting and gunshots now mingled with the screams, and the bottom levels of Chaos were ablaze—with fire rather than lights. But fire was a tenuous light—it cast some areas into fierce brightness and others into shadow—and unless they set the whole place on fire, it would not be enough to stop the vampires.

I raced through the entrance and swept up through the nearest air vent to the next level. People were everywhere, some dead, some not, some armed and fighting, and some simply bleeding. There were women and children among the dead and injured, and rage filled me. Not at the vampires, but at those who had ordered them here. They were responsible for this destruction, and by Rhea, one way or another, they would damn well pay for it.

We continued on to the next level. The sounds of gunshots and fighting grew sharper. Vampires lay among the dead, but their bodies smoldered rather than burned, even though the light from the nearby fires touched their forms.

Unease stirred, but I thrust it aside. The hows and whys behind their flesh remaining whole despite the touch of light could be worried about later. Right now I had one objective—beating the bastards to Penny.

I continued rising through the various air vents. The higher I got, the more prevalent regular lighting became, and the more it began to tear at my shadowed form. I made it to the fifth level before the shadows completely unraveled and I became myself again. As I landed in a half crouch on the spindly metal bridge that spanned the width of the vent, Bear screamed a warning. I grabbed the rifle from behind my back, swung around, and saw three vampires coming at me.

And the light wasn’t burning them. Wasn’t stopping them.

Rhea help us, I thought, even as I fired. Two went down in a fountain of blood and gore, but the third hit me and sent me tumbling backward. I shoved the rifle sideways into his mouth to stop him from biting me, but his razor-sharp fingernails raked my side, drawing blood. Then energy surged as my two little ghosts tore him from me. As he hit the side of a container on the far side of the bridge and slithered down, I sighted and fired, spreading his brains across the grimy metal wall. I scrambled upright and ran forward.

“Bear, find me the nearest ladder onto the sixth level.”

As he raced away, I ran across the rest of the bridge and entered the more shadowed laneway. Movement, this to my left. I flipped the rifle and swung it hard, then rapidly checked the blow. A woman with a child, not a vampire.

She grabbed a fistful of shirt, her grip fierce, as if she feared I’d shake her loose and move on. It made me wonder who had done so.

“Please,” she said, her eyes wide and glimmering with unshed tears. “Help us. Please.”

Urgency was beating through my brain, telling me that I needed to get to Penny, that if I didn’t, we’d lose her. But I couldn’t leave this woman here, scared, alone, and unprotected. Especially not when she was holding a baby.

I studied the nearby containers for someplace safe. Cat screamed a warning. I wrenched my arm free from the woman’s grip, then turned and fired. A vampire went down, half his leg gone. I finished him off and reloaded the weapon.

“This wa

y,” I said to the woman, voice tight.

She didn’t argue. She just fell in step behind me, keeping so close she tripped over my feet several times. Up ahead, light filtered out from underneath the door of a solid-looking container. It was brighter than the light that flooded much of this level, and might offer a little more safety. I stopped and tested the handle; it was locked. I raised a fist and bashed on the door. The sound echoed faintly, and after a second, footsteps shuffled toward us. “Who is it?”

“I’m a mercenary,” I said. “I have a woman and child here with me. You need to open up.”

There was a moment’s hesitation; then the locks were undone, bolts were slid aside, and the door opened a crack. An elderly man peered at us both for a second, then fully opened the door. “Come in, come in, quickly.”

I stepped to one side and allowed the woman to pass. “Have you got any weapons?” I asked the old man.