There was another howl; this one came from somewhere in the basement.
I broke the breech on the double barrel and the extractor pushed out the two salt/steel rounds. Gripping their brass cases and yanked them free. I inserted two of the silver buckshot rounds and snapped the breech closed. Then I dumped the other twenty-three rounds of silver shot into my left jacket pocket. I nestled the double-barrel in the crook of my left arm. Picking up the guard’s shotgun, I worked the action and ejected the last three shells in the magazine. I started feeding it silver rounds. Luckily for me, both guns were twelve gauge, the choice of cold-blooded killers the world over.
I heard snarling and three werewolves rounded the far end of the hallway.
I raised the pump.
There was a touch on my arm and I nearly jumped through the ceiling.
“Hoss, give me the double barrel,” Gail said from my left side.
I took in her bloody body, scraps of clothing, and calm features. The armbands’ silver chain held her hands together with no more than ten inches of freedom.
I let her slide the weapon from the crook of my arm. “Good to have you join me. I thought you were going to miss the party. There’s more ammunition in my left pocket.”
“Thanks,” was all she said.
The three wolves howled as they ran toward us.
“I’ll start right, you’ve got left.”
The weres were bounding straight toward us and did not appear to consider our weapons a threat. Well, ignorance isn’t always bliss.
Boom! I blasted the foremost werewolf. The silver buckshot collapsed it face first to the floor. I pumped the action as Gail’s piece boomed. The second werewolf went down, but without any sign of hesitation, the last wolf leapt over the bodies of the first two. We fired together.
Boom! Boom!
Two loads of silver buckshot met it at ten feet. Its head disintegrated and its body slid to a stop at our feet.
I felt Gail digging in my side pocket for more rounds.
She extracted the spent rounds, loaded two more, and snapped the breech closed. We stopped to listen.
“I can’t hear anything,” I said. “How about you?”
She cocked her head and I saw that her electronic earplugs had remained in place through the transformations. “There aren’t any more in the basement, but I hear someone talking upstairs.”
“Can you make out what they’re saying?” I asked.
She gave me a puzzled look. “Are you kidding?”
I shrugged.
“Well, my hearing isn’t that good,” Gail said.
I took a better look at my werewolf partner. Her face, neck, upper torso, and hair was soaked in blood, as were her blouse and jeans. Her blouse had been torn open at the front and split in the upper sleeves. She was half in, half out of her bra, and her pants were ripped in multiple places, mostly around the hips where it looked like she had struggled to get out of them. She was barefoot and blood dripped from her pants onto her feet where it pooled onto the floor around her.
“Damn, are you okay?” I asked.
She looked down at herself and then held out her shotgun. I took it.
“I’ve got a headache,” she said as she adjusted the bra to cover her. “Other than that, I don’t think I have any injuries.”
“How much do you remember?”
She wiped at her nose and studied the blood in her hand. I couldn’t tell any difference. She had left bloody handprints on the shotgun and my jacket where she’d dug around in the pocket. “I remember Montgomery saying something about the ring and then I felt him in my head. I tried to resist, but it seemed like his mind reached inside of me to the wolf and the wolf answered. I held off changing as long as I could, but the pressure to change became too great to ignore. The next thing I remember is waking up, human again with these armbands around my wrists and seeing you in the hallway.”
“That’s all you saw?” I asked.
She glanced furtively toward the open door to the cell and then quickly away. “That’s it. I don’t know how I got so bloody without being hurt myself.”
I shook my head. “It’s a long story and isn’t germane. It must be dark by now and if the professors are still alive, the specter will be coming for them. We should sweep the house and kill the rest of these bastards,” I said indicating the four human shapes that occupied the hallway. The first man I’d killed wore clothes, the other three bodies, all male, were naked.
Gail cast another glance toward the room where she’d killed and feasted on the other guard. She shuddered and held out her hands for the shotgun. I passed her the double barrel and then picked up both backpacks. I slung one through both my arms and snugged it down, the other one I draped over my left shoulder.
“Just a minute,” I said as I walked back into the room.
The body was decapitated and eviscerated. Its chest cavity was open and cords of intestines draped over its legs. My nose involuntarily tightened at the stench of blood, guts, and assorted matter. I grimaced and stepped around the carcass. I found Gail’s socks and boots farther in the room. I picked them up and rejoined her.
She’d been watching me and her face had gone pale beneath the blood. She passed me her shotgun again and I struggled with not dropping anything.
Turning to the wall, she bent and retched up a bloody mass of parts that didn’t need to be looked at too closely. I set everything
