The Many Regrets of a Cyborg Werewolf

Blood - XXXVI

"Luke?" Erin asked as she approached his new form. He had simply stood there, motionless, even as the golems were still heard climbing from below. Erin held her hand out, tepidly, and placed it on Luke's shoulder. Suddenly his head started to move, as if he only just now noticed her, the aggressive new helmet startling her with the abrupt motion. Luke didn't speak immediately, only looking around as if he had just returned from somewhere, and glanced towards the edge of the platform just as the first line of golems reached up. In an orderly line they appeared, moving in unison, and now they fixated squarely on Luke. The line of six-foot clay soldiers lumbered towards him like a pack of dogs, and Luke remained motionless as they bore down on him.

"Stop," he said in a deep, distorted voice. The golems halted mid-stride, frozen, and Luke looked at them quizzically. Each one was identical, clad in police-issue tactical gear, and were it not for their impossible lack of motion and total uniformity, one couldn't tell that they weren't human beings under all the gear. Luke held his hand up to the nearest golem's face, his elongated nails tipped in red that almost seemed to pulsate with his heartbeat, and with a flick of his fingers the golem was suddenly shed of all its garb, revealing its true clay body beneath. It was finely sculpted, anatomically accurate to the pores, and the face almost resembled that of Greek statues. Luke's expression wasn't visible, but his long look at the golem alluded to his interest in its design. Yet as poignant as his fascination was, it was fleeting, and Luke quickly seemed to remember what he was here for.

"Kill each other," he ordered. Instantly the golems turned on one another, throwing their arms and smashing each other. They didn't go down in one hit, or even a few, their resilience was immense even compared to the strength of the others, but finally one golem remained. The lone survivor of the group before them turned back towards the courtyard and leapt. Erin and Mahi rushed to the edge to witness the massive brawl below as thousands of golems all tore each other apart. It was brutal, even if the combatants were made of clay, and Erin turned to look at Luke again. He seemed absent, staring at nothing, or perhaps staring at something they just couldn't see, until Erin noticed movement from behind him. One of the guards regained consciousness, grabbed a discarded rifle, and took aim. Erin was about to warn Luke, but he wasn't there. Instead he appeared behind the guard, as if emerging from his shadow, and the man turned around just in time for Luke to grab his face in both hands. The guard's terrified expression was reflected in the blood red visor as Luke seemed to cup his head in his palms. The jagged mouthplate covering Luke's face moved, retracting back into the helmet, revealing a massive maw of exposed fangs. Without warning or hesitation Luke snapped the man's head to one side, digging his teeth into his neck, and began to suck the guard dry.

"Luke...?" Erin uttered in shock. She watched impotently as Luke continued to feed on the man until his visible flesh withered and darkened, devoid of life, before dropping the husk at his feet. The inhumanly large teeth, now stained red, clenched together as he seemed to bask in the act, before the mouthplate shut suddenly. Erin didn't know what to say. She didn't know what was happening. After so long, after so much, it didn't seem right, and it was far from over.

Luke held his hands up, as if lifting an invisible object, and slowly the other unconscious bodies of the guards they fought raised into the air. They hovered around Luke in a circle, just at the end of his reach, and with one single, spinning swipe of his claws each one of their throats slit. Blood poured from their necks, spilling to the ground, but stopped short of hitting it. Instead the blood extended like tendrils towards Luke, seeping into his body through the armour. Just like the guard he bit all the men shrivelled up before falling to the ground. Luke seemed to heave as the blood finished entering his body, as if taking in a deep breath, before turning his head towards Mercury. The man still lay beneath the forklift, stunned at both the destruction of his army and the sudden death of the guards, and stared at Luke with terror as he approached.