Raving Moon, Lords of the Night Book One

Chapter 36: Abattoir

We hopped a gate of steel bars haphazardly reinforced by sections of sheet metal. Someone had made a poor job of fortifying the backyards of the three building complex. The air stank of human waste and rotting meat. The people in the nearby apartments would have smelled the stench from their open windows and called the city. There was no one around.

Peering over the fence into the neighboring backyards, I saw broken windows and doors. Death lingered heavily in the air. Magaven's House had used these blocks as their feeding grounds. From the street side it looked like business as usual, but from the backyard the true nature of the area was clear. We stood in a mass grave.

Idia scanned the perimeter with wide eyes, Ariane stood at her back sniffing the air for hints of threat. I didn't need to see their expressions to know they sensed the carnage. The Lancer, Jack, watched the rear, pistol in hand. His narrow eyes glowed red in the shadows cast by the buildings. The broad shouldered Agatha wererat stayed close to my side, his nose twitching as if pestered by a phantom itch.

I signaled for the team to move towards the rear of the central building. We were to find a way inside and sweep the rooms. Our goal was Magaven, but putting down his insane followers would hamstring his powerbase. There was always a chance he'd escape and his madness would continue to spread.

The big ratman put up his hand and we stopped at the door.

"Team Eight in position," he said into his earpiece. "Copy." He turned to me, "Whenever you're ready."

I nodded. He put up three fingers and counted down. On three he kicked open the door and Jack rushed in scanning left and right. Idia swiftly followed, then Ariane, then myself. The rat man took the rear, whispering something in Russian.

The back door led to a long dark hall, the smell of old death clung to the walls like the peeling paint. an open door on the left revealed a small room where bones sat in a refuse pile, picked nearly clean. The rib cages and spines ran the spectrum of sizes. Big or small, no one was spared Magaven's violence. At the end of the hall we came to a room with stairs leading up and a wooden door barely hanging from its hinges. Something moved behind the door causing a weak floorboard to creak.

Everyone raised their weapons and spread out. The rat man moved to the door. Again he raised three fingers.

One...

Two...

And all hell broke loose.

Gunfire echoed into the room from upstairs. His headset flared to life. The rat man pulled out the screeching earbud as a ball of rippling muscle and fur crashed through the door, tackling him to the floor and taking his face in a set of massive jaws.

I pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. No misfire, no dud, nothing.

Idia and Jack opened fire, catching the lycanthrope in the shoulder and stomach. He rolled aside, taking much of the rat man's face with him. The wolfman roared, death magic, like virulent purple light, slithering through his nervous system just beneath the skin. Ariane shot him between the eyes and he dropped stone dead. He shifted back before his innards liquified, leaving him like a half swollen water balloon.

A second wolfman barreled out of the darkness as I holstered my firearm and drew my knives. The team fired into the room and the lycanthrope leaped into the air, crashing through the ceiling and out of sight. The lancer took cover beside the door and searched to make sure there were no more prowling about. Idia trained her pistol on the stairwell.

Ariane squeezed her eyes tight and shook her head, but stopped abruptly when she caught me watching.

"We okay over there?"