Titan: The Dark Path

Night Watch

Tim stood behind them. They scanned the crowd for their prey. There was a dense crowd exiting the hospital and the escalator down to the Metro stop was crowded. A line had formed.

He waited behind them and listened to them talk.

"The fuck is this?" Scott said.

"Did they get away?" William said.

"No," Scott said. "Bitch is in the station. Her whore scent is still strong. But who knows when the next train is coming... Wait." He sampled the air. Recognition.

"What?"

"Something else... when I was tied to the desk, in my room, there was..." Scott spun and looked at Tim, his face in shadow under the hood.

When Tim looked up, his mask was on. All of the brothers turned and looked at him. Then they stared at each other for a moment.

Finally, Tim said, "Forget the girl. You really want to talk to me."

"Who the hell are you?" Scott asked.

"I'm the guy who released the women you kidnapped and found your underground lair with the evil pit. You're the trust fund babies turned Satanists," Tim said. "Now we're caught up on who everyone is."

Everyone looked shocked except for Scott. He glowered at Tim. "The bitch won't get away and neither will you. Kill him." Scott faded behind his posse.

Tim struck before the others could move. He kicked the frat brother on his right in the side of his knee, snapping it sideways with a loud crack. He collapsed under his own weight and screamed. Tim whirled to his left and broke the next brother's nose. He fell flat on his back with an unguarded thud.

The other brothers' faces transformed into snarling jackals like the thug underground. Their bones snapped and cracked into place. Their canines glistened. They attacked with clawed hands outstretched.

Tim held their snapping jaws at a distance. "Christ, you too?" he said.

Scott's eyes flashed yellow. "Deal with him." His face changed, too. So did the faces of the remaining brothers with him. They leaped on top of the newsstand overlooking the escalator. A man waiting in line for the escalator pointed at them and yelled. His girlfriend screamed. Others in the crowd saw them too. More screams erupted and the crowd scattered in a panic. Scott jumped down to the escalator and his two remaining brothers followed. More screams echoed up from the stairway.

Tim stretched out his leg and tripped the man-jackal on his right. The beast fell thrashing into the stampede of fleeing people. Tim redirected the elements running down his right arm and chest onto his whole face giving him a thick metal mask. He let up on the jackal on the left and when he lunged for a bite, Tim head butted him with a half-inch plate of iron. The creature's teeth broke against the hardened metal and it shrank away mewling in pain.

The metal in Tim's face redistributed back to his right arm and chest and he pursued the wounded man-thing. He dealt with him. But not fast enough to catch up to Rose's train.

Scott and his friends made it, though.

The train sped up and slowed. It bounced and jostled. The cabin lights were too bright and too white. Rose squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block it all out. The sweet juice and liquor turned sour in her stomach and her throat was dry. Constance leaned on her, dozing. Dan insisted on riding back with them. He sat twisted around in the seat in front of them.

"I'm from Syracuse, New York."

"D.C.'s a long way from Syracuse," Rose said.

"I only applied to out-of-state schools," Dan said. "Tired of nine month winters. I'm in the summer program at Capitol U."