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Cormac stoodthere eyeing the metal door, trying not to panic. Shit was going down—or was about to. Turney was cut off from them, Octavius was doing who knows what, and a crazy Knight was somewhere fucking them over.
“There are no handles to open any of these,” Theo said.
He eyed the door again, grimacing at the line of bolts where a handle would normally be.
Min-ji hummed. “My guess is that they aren’t meant to be opened from this side.”
Henry sighed. “I have a feeling that we will soon know what they are meant for.”
“Why would you say that?!” Cormac cried, spinning around. “Don’t jinx us! I don’t want to know!”
“Is there still no signal?” Theo asked with a huff.
Cormac reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. There was a nice fat X in the top corner of his screen. “Nope, nothing.”
The others nodded, confirming it was the same with theirs.
“There has to be something blocking it. If I could just access whatever it is, I could probably fix it. Or break it.” Though in a hotel this big, there was probably more than one jammer. Then again, it was possible that there wasn’t a jammer at all, and that the signal here was just nonexistent.
“Speaking of breaking,” Theo began. “There are some cameras on the walls that we should probably get rid of.”
Cormac’s gaze flicked up to where his brother was pointing. He quickly spotted a camera in each of the highest corners of the room.
“Henry, could you be a dear and crush them for us?” Scarlett asked. “I doubt it will stop whatever may come out of those doors, but it can only benefit us if we aren’t being watched.”
Cormac honestly didn’t think it was necessary. He could tell Octavius was above, and he wasn’t alone. Based on the vampire’s heart patterns and movement…he was fighting whoever he was with. If Dayan had been watching, he wasn’t anymore.
Henry nodded, and in an instant, he shifted into a pretty large black bat.
“You are much bigger than Octavius,” Cormac mused.
Henry shrugged. “Octavius prefers changing into very small creatures. I do not.”
Flying up, the vampire quickly dispatched the cameras and was soon landing on the ground and shifting back.
A shiver ran down his spine at the sound of an odd release of air behind him. He slowly turned around, the others doing so as well. His eyes widened at the open metal door. There was nothing to see in the darkness inside. Just blank stone walls and a turn at the end of a short hallway. Nothing to see or hear.
It went from nothing to way too much very quickly. The sounds of bones grinding, the putrid smell of rotting flesh—ghouls…
“Fuck,” Cormac groaned.
Turney screamed out as one of the creatures tore at his leg, while he tried to prevent another from ripping out his throat. Hands on the thing’s face, he gripped onto the monstrosity's jaw, and with all his might, he pulled. He heard joints crack and snap as he tore the thing’s jaw clean off, blood coating his hands. At the same time, he swung his leg against the wall, again and again, doing his best to ignore the sickening squishing sounds he heard as he crushed it. Soon the experimental dog thing from hell was nothing but a writhing heap of limbs, still moving but no longer threatening.
Rolling with the one still on top of him, Turney sprung up, throwing the thing to the ground. He started stomping on it with his good-ish leg, as both were bleeding now. The ghoul kept trying to fight him off, even though it had no way to bite any longer. One last stomp and the creature was also a mess of wiggling, squirming, bleeding, rotting limbs. Turney gritted his teeth, barely stopping himself from gagging at the mess and putrid smell that was everywhere, all over him.
“I am going to need…the hottest shower of my life after this,” he said with a pain filled groan. He eyed the partially intact face of one of the dog creatures. “But…can’t say I’m not happy you freaks weren’t just dogs.”
Turney wasn’t sure he’d have been able to so easily hit back if they had been regular animals…even if they were ghouls.
Limping even more now, he started down the hallway towards the next stairway.
* * *
Theo usedhis rage to slice through the ghouls that were on him. Everyone was pretty pinned down by multiple creatures. As easy as the limbs came off, it did nothing to discourage the pathetic creatures from attacking. Worse…he was becoming more aware of how far behind his strength was from where it used to be. This was only his fourth ghoul and he was already getting tired...
He cut the one in front of him in half, even as the thing’s claws sliced across his side. Theo stiffened at the sound of another door opening up right behind him. He had stupidly managed to get himself backed up near it.
Spinning, his eyes widened as he found himself face to chest with a ghoul that towered over him even in his half wolf form. Its hand shot out, grabbing onto his shoulders and lifting him up. He howled as the thing began to squeeze, pushing inward, as if trying to crush him like a can. Theo tried to break its hold, kicking out, but with his arms pinned down, he was unable to reach the ghoul with his claws. Feeling like his bones were being crushed, he shifted back to his human form, hoping to slip from his grasp—it didn’t work.
