The Campus Part2/?
The Campus Part2/?
" This is getting serious." Soul whispered to Stryx, who was still crouched by the pool of congealing blood that he was inspecting.
Stryx just nodded and stood, looking around for whatever clues he might find, or in case the party responsible was still hanging around. His gloved hand slid under his duster to his right armpit where an antique Walker Colt .44 revolver nestled. She knew what it was because she had bought it for him, ebony handled with an image of Set engraved in ivory on them. There was a delicate sssssss-snack as he drew the pistol and cocked it.
Soul looked at him with a questioning expression on her face. He shook his head and held a gloved finger to his lips. He ducked out of the door for a second and came back in.
" Clear. Best give Giles a bell."
Soul took her cell-phone from her own duster and held it to her ear. There was nothing, no response but static. She switched it off and tried again, with the same result.
" It�s useless, can�t get a signal."
" Bugger." Stryx sighed and took a pull from his hip-flask. " I�m open to suggestions."
Soul went to him and he slid an arm around her. " We�ve got to find out what happened here."
He let out another long breath. " I knew you�d say that." He kissed her gently and chuckled. " This curiosity of yours is gonna be the death of me."
Soul pulled him closer. " Don�t you ever dare say that again." Her tone was stunned shock.
He saw how much he had hurt her with that stupid quip, engaging mouth before brain as usual. His head rested on her shoulder and he whispered, " It was a joke. I didn�t think, I�m sorry."
" I know. It�s just this whole situation has me a little on edge."
" Nothing is gonna hurt you. They�ve got to get through me first."
As soon as he said it, Soul knew he meant every word, and she felt safer with that oath. She smiled up at him and gave him a little squeeze before they moved out of the office.
" First thing we have to do is find a �phone that works." Stryx was at her shoulder as she walked across the asphalt towards the main building of the campus.
Soul looked back over her shoulder and saw that he had put on his game face, serpent�s eyes glittered in the light that reflected from the iridescent midnight purple scales on his cheeks. A forked tongue flickered as he wet his dry lips. He had gone onto full alert, which meant that it would be a very lucky individual that would get past him. As yet, there had been none who had been that lucky, and fewer yet who had survived.
Stryx was one of the Shadow Brethren, the last in fact. He had been sent to Hell and the rest of the Brethren had found him, tapping the demon that had always been a part of him and letting it enhance his vampire. His physical abilities where better developed, as where his arcane skills. She had met him not too long ago and he had traded blood with her. His new skills had altered her own vampire and altered her in a similar fashion. She was psychically gifted, and also possessed of various fey talents. As a team they were formidable in the extreme.
Her hand curled around the handle of a door and twisted it. There was an ominous creak as it swung open on hinges that were too rusty to be anything less than twenty years old. Which was impossible.
Inside was dark, the only light that which came from outside, not that that mattered to the vampire couple. Off to her right was a reception area, a log-book of visitors was open on the desk. Covered in blood. Soul paid it scant attention, more interested in trying to place the telephone receiver against her ear without smearing blood all over herself. Just like her cell-phone she was rewarded with the sound of static. A second later and the static was cut off into silence. A silence that was in turn shattered by a voice. It sounded as if the speaker had lungs filled with thick liquid.
" Help me�the pain�end it now�."
She let the receiver drop with a crack is it struck the desk-top, where it splintered into fragments. Stryx took a step towards her, his right hand outstretched to her. His head swung to the end of the corridor as the sound of a door slamming echoed through the hallway. Soul looked in the direction of his numbed gaze and immediately wished she hadn�t.
Shambling towards them was a figure that she at first thought was naked. As her vampire eyes became accustomed to the unnatural gloom, she saw that was not so. The figure was not naked. It was flayed to the muscle. Light glistened on raw flesh, and it left bloody footprints on the linoleum as it shuffled towards them. In it�s mutilated face, empty eye sockets transfixed them with it�s undead gaze. A tongue moved against the naked teeth; and it opened its mouth.
" Help me." It raised its hand, in which a butcher knife glittered.
Stryx stepped between her and levelled his pistol. There was a single report as he fired. The shot was perfectly sighted in between the creature�s eyes, blowing out the back of it�s head. It fell to the floor like a puppet that had had its strings cut.
" This is getting to be so much fun." Stryx growled without a trace of humour in his voice.
TO BE CONTINUED�����.
