Werewolf Apocalypse: Rise of the Lycans

The Cover

The cable snapped above us with a sound like the sound of a rifle being shot, and the floor dropped out from under our feet.

That sickening, stomach-lurching instant of weightlessness where your heart floats up into your throat was the first feeling I had. Then came the screech of emergency brakes grinding against steel guide rails and throwing sparks through the dark cracks of the elevator doors. It slowed us down for two terrifying seconds before the secondary clamps sheared completely off.

"Clara!" I screamed, wrapping my body over hers as the dark shaft rushed up to swallow us.

The impact slammed the breath out of my lungs with the force of a wrecking ball, and I felt an unhealthy amount of pain surge through me. The heavy steel cage crumpled like a soda can when it struck the concrete pit of the Sub-level and the single overhead light bulb detonated into a shower of white-hot sparks.

A very thick suffocating silence settled in what was left of the damaged lift. It was broken only by the hiss of ruptured hydraulic lines and the sound of my own ragged, wheezing gasps.

"Clara..." I groaned, my vision swimming with red static.

Pain flared across my ribs, but I pushed myself up, feeling through the darkness until my hand touched her coat. She was trembling violently, her skin scorching hot against my fingertips.

"I'm... alive," she rasped. Her voice was barely a breath, choked with concrete dust. "Leo... the air... it smells different down here."

I kicked through the shattered roof panel of the collapsed lift, pulling us both up through the twisted steel frame into the darkness of the basement.

It wasn't an ordinary basement, the modern foundation of the skyscraper had been blasted right into the city's ancient stone underbelly. A massive breach in the reinforced concrete wall led straight into a dripping, vaulted brick tunnel that was the old 19th-century storm sewer network. The air was frigid and thick with the stench of damp moss, old iron, and wet earth.

"This way," I whispered, hoisting Clara's arm over my shoulder.

We staggered through the breach into the black tunnel. Behind us, forty floors up the elevator shaft, distant howls echoed through the iron pipe. The main horde was still coming down, but down here, in the cold subterranean dark, it was dead silent.

Until a match struck... wait... it wasn't a match, it was a flare. A sharp hiss ignited twenty feet ahead of us, flooding the dripping brick tunnel with a harsh, crimson glare.

Standing in the center of the flooded walkway was a wolf. My left hand instantly flew in front of Clara, and my burning right palm went in front of me as it surged with sudden, electric heat. But this beast didn't lunge, neither did it roar.

It stood upright on its hind legs. It was a seven feet tall massive beast, covered in fur which was a matted mix of dark grey and white scars. Heavy silver-trimmed leather straps were wrapped across its chest, they were not human clothes, but ancient harness armor. In its right hand, it held the sputtering red signal flare. In its left, a heavy, iron-headed spear.

Its yellow eyes locked onto Clara, then shifted down to my glowing palm.

"The Sun-Crest," the creature rumbled.

The voice wasn't an animal's growl, it was deep, gravelly, and well articulated one, speaking in a rough, ancient dialect of English that sounded like grinding millstones.

"A Priestly vessel walks the lower dark... carrying a freshly bitten moon-child."

"Stay back!" I shouted, stepping between him and Clara with my palm flaring wide. "I'll burn you to ash!"

The scout didn't flinch, instead he lowered the flare slightly, his long snout pulling back to expose yellowed, knife-like teeth, not in a sneer, but in something resembling solemn pity.

"Your blood burns, human, but it cannot cure what is already woven into her bones," the scout said softly. "I am Varek, of the Subterranean Third Circle. I do not fight for Alpha Vane's blood-lust. He brings a war that will turn the sky to fire and destroy us all."

"If you're not with Vane, then let us pass," I demanded as if I knew the Vane he was talking about. Clara was now collapsed heavily against my side with her forehead resting against my shoulder.

"Pass to where?" Varek asked, stepping closer, his heavy claws clicking against the wet brick floor. "The surface is a meat-grinder. The vampires execute every living breath, and Vane’s wild packs tear down the sky. The Harvest Moon rises in three hours, human. When it reaches its peak, your female will shed her human skin forever. She will turn on you, and your Priestly blood will force you to destroy the thing you hold dear."

"No," Clara sobbed, her hand clutching my blood-soaked jacket sleeve. Her fingers, now tipped with thick, black talons, were digging into my skin so hard I felt my own blood pool under her grip. "Leo... he's right... I can feel it... the moon is pulling my mind apart..."

Tears of pure, agonizing frustration spilled down my face, hot against the cold sewer draft.

"I won't kill her," I choked out, staring down the giant scarred beast. "I'll tear this whole city down before I let anyone hurt her!"

Varek stared at me for a long, silent moment. Then, he thrust the iron butt of his spear into the muddy water at his feet.

"Then you are a fool," Varek rumbled softly. "A brave, foolish human. But if you wish to save her soul before the Blood Moon reaches its zenith, you cannot stay in the shadow of the Synod. Follow the old drainage line west. Beneath the grand cathedral lies the First Altar. If your blood is true... the altar will answer."

Before I could ask what he meant, Varek’s ears twitched and he turned his head back toward the elevator shaft.

From the dark tunnel behind us came the thunderous, rhythmic march of dozens of heavy quadrupedal strides. Alpha Vane’s vanguard had reached the basement.

Varek tossed the red flare into the water at my feet.

"Run, human," the scout growled, turning his heavy iron spear toward the dark tunnel behind us. "I will buy you ten minutes. Do not waste them."

I didn't wait. I scooped Clara's burning body up into my arms and sprinted deep into the black belly of the sewer tunnels as the sound of snapping jaws and tearing iron exploded behind us.