When they stopped outside the guard booth, the man turned to look at them. He didn’t seem surprised to see them standing there.
“I need to use your phone,” Lucien said.
The guard grabbed the black phone sitting on the counter and pushed it toward him.
“Do you have a cell phone?” Lucien asked.
“No.”
Lucien kept his irritation over this concealed as he pulled the phone closer and lifted it from the receiver. He started dialing the last number he remembered for Ronan and waited as the phone rang. Usually, Ronan would have gotten rid of the phone with this number by now, but Lucien suspected Ronan kept it in the hopes of receiving this call.
He’d almost finished dialing when he spotted three Savages emerge from the alley between the buildings across the way. They stayed to the shadows, but they were out in the day, which meant they weren’t as far gone as some of their brethren and the sun didn’t bother them as much.
And as he watched them, their eyes found his.
Chapter Seventeen
The Savages emerged from the shadows of the buildings and raced across the road toward them. Gripping Callie’s elbow, Lucien hurried her toward the guard booth. The older man stood inside, gaping at the monsters racing across the street toward them.
“Get in the booth,” he told her, “and stay in there until this is over.”
“Lucien….” She started to protest, but he was already pushing her inside and closing the door.
Out of frustration, she slapped her hand against the glass before reaching for the handle. Her fingers enclosed on the knob and froze there. Heart hammering, she lifted her gaze to the Savages racing across the street toward them.
What was she going to do out there… besides get in the way and possibly get them killed? But she hated the idea of him out there, alone with those things. The only weapon he had was himself, and though he looked better than yesterday, he didn’t look as healthy as these things. He was still bony; they were well-fed monsters.
She started to twist the knob before stopping. She wasn’t afraid of going out there and fighting them; they would kick her ass, she had no doubt about it, but she was scared of being a distraction to Lucien, and neither of them could afford that.
She couldn’t be the reason he died. He’d hurt her, but she wouldn’t be here, or alive, if it wasn’t for him.
Releasing the knob, she rested her palm against the glass as Lucien faced the Savages and braced his feet apart. “Lucien,” she breathed.
“What is going on?” the guard demanded, but his voice wavered.
The Savages scrambled up the chain-link fence like monkeys up a tree. When they arrived at the top, the barbwire didn’t slow them even a little. They jumped over it and landed on the other side in a move so fluid Callie barely saw them.
Callie’s mouth went dry as she locked the door and backed away from it. The lock and glass would do little to stop the Savages from getting through, but it gave her a measure of relief. Then one of them looked up at her and smiled.
She didn’t recognize the creature, but something in the way he looked at her unnerved her completely. Hunger emanated from the man, but she wasn’t sure if it was for her blood or something more.
“What are those things?” the guard breathed.
“Death,” Callie murmured and wished she could take the word back when his breath sucked in.
Her gaze shifted back to Lucien as the Savages raced for him. She spotted the phone outside lying on the ground a second before Lucien lifted it and jerked it toward him. The cord ripped from the wall inside the booth and slid out beneath the door. It caught for a second before tearing free.
Gripping the phone in both hands, Lucien used it to bash in the skull of the first Savage as it lunged at him. Clutching the caved-in side of its head, the creature staggered away from him before hitting the ground on all fours.
Callie pressed her hand against the glass and leaned closer. She couldn’t breathe as the second Savage grasped Lucien’s arm and jerked him around. They’d just found freedom, and now these things were going to destroy that.
The Savage, who had smiled at her, jumped onto Lucien’s back. No!
Lucien stretched a hand over his back to grasp the Savage’s neck. His fingers brushed against its open mouth; it was about to sink its fangs into his throat when Lucien squeezed its flesh and hauled it over his shoulder to smash it into the ground.
The Savage grunted as it squirmed like a worm and tried to get away, but before it could, he lifted his foot and hammered the heel of his stolen sneakers into the Savage’s mouth.
Callie winced and started to look away from the brutal scene, but she had to see. She couldn’t not know what was going on. Lucien was winning, but that could change, and if he were in jeopardy, she would do what she could to help him.
Hovering nervously at her side, the guard murmured a prayer. She didn’t know what he was praying for, Lucien to win, all of them to die, or some kind of heavenly intervention.
The third Savage turned and started to flee. Lucien could not allow that to happen. Even if they were long gone from this area before more Savages returned, they would have the advantage of knowing where to start looking for them.
The Savage was near the top of the fence when Lucien launched himself up the chain-link, grasped the back of its shirt, and yanked. The material tore as it gave way, but he pulled the Savage from the fence.
Lucien swung it over his head and drove it into the ground. Bones crunched as it smashed into the pavement. The creature’s broken arm hung limply at its side as it dove at him.
Clasping his hands together, Lucien hammered them into the Savage’s back when it wrapped its arms around his waist. The Savage pulled his jeans down and nearly pulled them off his ass as it hit the ground.
Before the creature could recover, Lucien pulled back his fist, and kneeling over it, he smashed his hand into the Savage’s back. Bone and flesh gave way as he pushed through to grasp the monster’s still-beating heart. With a yank, he tore the organ free and smooshed it into the ground.
Though incapacitated, the remaining two Savages remained a threat. Lucien returned to the first Savage as it staggered to its feet and swayed toward him. The one side of its head still looked like a car had backed over it, but its bulging eyes were a fiery red, and drool dripped from its elongated fangs.
Like a mummy, newly risen from the sarcophagus, it held its arms in front of it as it lurched forward. When Lucien grasped one of those arms, the fingers of its free hand dug into his flesh, but Lucien ignored it as he spun the Savage, grabbed its misshapen head, and snapped its neck.
The guard fell to his knees, crossed himself, and clasped his hands in front of him as his prayers grew louder. Unsure of what else to do, Callie rested her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. The man trembled beneath her, and she hoped he didn’t have a heart attack before this ended.
Lucien kept twisting the Savage’s head until he ripped it free. Then he turned his attention to the remaining creature as it launched at him.
Lucien dodged the punch, caught the creature’s elbow, and snapped its arm over his knee before bashing his elbow into the Savage’s face, once, twice, three times. The creature’s head shot back with each of the blows, and blood sprayed from its mouth as its face became more like mush.