The Frenzy Way (47 page)

With sweat pouring down his face, Mace peered around the wall. He did not see Janus. Perhaps he could make it down the stairs and out the front door—

No. Too dangerous. You’ll never make it. He’ll take you from behind.

He needed his gun. With it, he could create enough of a diversion to flee or drive the Blade into Janus’s black heart. He looked down the hallway behind him. At least forty feet deep, with half a dozen open doors between him and the end. What would he find down there?

Don’t know. But I can’t stay here.

Moving his right foot past his left, he set it down on the rug, then eased his weight onto it. The floor did not squeak.

Good.

For all he knew, Janus possessed a canine’s superior hearing. He moved his left foot past his right leg, holding his arms out at his sides for balance.

So far, so good.

But why had Janus stopped taunting him? He continued on, one cautious step after another, glancing through the half-open doors at the empty rooms beyond them, hoping to stumble across something—anything—that he could use as a weapon or a distraction. One room actually had furniture—a bed, a desk, and a TV—and he glimpsed clothing hanging in the open closet.

The master’s bedroom.

Halfway down the hall, he stood looking down at a single wooden step that descended to the remainder of the floor. If he set his full weight on that step, it might make a loud squeak. If he stepped over it, his weight would surely make a sound that would alert Janus to his presence. His heart pounded faster, and sweat stung his eyes. He cast a glance behind him at the stairway banister. He had no way of knowing if Janus stood on the other side of the curve.

He could be waiting there right now.

Swallowing, he wanted to slip inside one of the rooms.

But then I’ll be trapped for sure.

Setting his left foot on the step, he allowed a small sigh to escape his lips when the move created no sound. Then he brought his right foot forward and set it on the floor below. The creak that followed caused his heart to skip a beat.

Damn it!

Setting his left foot on the floor as well, he froze and listened for Janus, gaze darting to the stairway behind him. Thirty seconds passed. Feeling the desperation of a cornered animal, he started forward again, cognizant of the Blade swinging against his left hip. The hallway angled so that he no longer saw the banister behind him when he glanced over his shoulder. Thunder roared overhead.

The hallway grew darker, engulfing him. Reaching its end, he saw that the final door opened into a bathroom. Despair settled in: he had found nothing that could help him.

Unless there’s something inside the bathroom …

Then the door on his right flew open, and Janus stood naked before him in the service stairway, a malevolent grin on his face.

“Looking for something?” the werewolf said.

Before Mace could react, Janus seized him by his throat and slammed his back against the opposite wall with such force that he nearly knocked the wind out of him. Mace felt Janus’s hand change into what felt like knife blades that threatened to cut his throat from his neck. Gasping, he grabbed Janus’s wrist with both hands. It felt like scratching steel.

The grinning man leaned close to his face. “Why, Captain Mace, what
big eyes
you have. The better to see me with, I suppose.”

In that moment, the brown irises of Janus’s eyes expanded, blotting out the whites, so that he stared at Mace with two dark orbs. Mace aimed a kick at the creature’s groin, but Janus turned his body sideways and Mace’s foot struck air. Laughing, Janus hurled Mace to the floor, where Mace saw Patty’s .38 clutched in his foe’s hand.

“What a brave little pig,” Janus said, aiming the gun at Mace’s head. “You’ve been dogging me. Are you still investigating Glenzer’s death, or are you here to settle the score for that bitch in blue I killed the other night?”

“She was under my command,” Mace said as if that answered everything.

“She had good taste.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

Janus’s smile turned contemptuous. “Not by the hair of your chinny-chin-chin.” He moved the .38’s barrel between Mace’s eyes. “If it hadn’t been for the invention of this foul maker of death, my kind might still be roaming this country’s wildernesses. Your kind has nearly wiped mine out. Our retarded cousin, the wolf, has practically vanished.”

“You killed Glenzer for the Blade. How did you know he had it?”

Janus glared at Mace before answering. “I spent several years with a small Wolf cell in Europe. My brothers had grandiose ideas about striking out at your species, but I found their methods lacking. So I came home. When they intercepted several phone calls between Glenzer and a monsignor in the Vatican, they informed me that the old man possessed the Blade. It was my obligation to take it from him. With that damned silver no doubt buried in an avalanche of bureaucratic redtape, we can kill whoever we want. If one rogue Wolf can turn your entire city upside down, imagine what
thousands
of us can do.”

“What about Sarah Harper and Mandy Lee?”

Janus appeared puzzled. “What about them? Are you looking for a confession? I killed them because I
could.
It brought me great pleasure to drink their blood and chew their flesh. They were
dessert
.”

Mace looked deep into the fiend’s dark eyes. “If you kill me …”

Janus’s thin lips tightened. “You’re in no position to threaten me, Little Pig. But I’m curious. How did you find me?”

Taking a deep breath, Mace got to his feet. The revolver in Janus’s hand followed him. Facing the killer eye to eye, with his chest rising and falling, he braced himself for the impact of a bullet.

“Did Glenzer leave instructions in that safe that tipped you off?”

Mace stared back at the predator.

“It was that whore in the bookstore, wasn’t it? She didn’t want to tell me who she gave her copy of Glenzer’s book to, but I smelled Man all over her. And I guess it was no coincidence that you showed up when I gutted that half-breed. I’ll deal with her in my own way, in my own time.”

“She’s gone.” It felt good to deprive Janus of his twisted pleasure.

“Oh, I’ll find her when I deal with her siblings. I have a knack for drawing my enemies into the open. But that’s for the future. Let’s stick to the present, shall we? I admire you, Little Pig. Even though you saw me in action, it took an open mind to accept my existence. Despite all the evidence I’ve left in my wake, your superiors stubbornly maintain that I’m a human psychopath. I’m insulted. How can I top myself? Thank God for your media. And even though you had help, it showed real courage to come here alone.”

“I’m a police,” Mace said.

“‘To protect and serve’?”

Mace ignored the insult.

“I’ll tell you what,
Anthony.
Let’s have some fun. See those stairs?” Janus used the gun to gesture past Mace, who glanced at the far end of the stairway.

“No, but I know they’re there … Julian.”

Janus raised his eyebrows. Then his smile turned genuine. “So she
did
remember me. That’s sweet. I’ll make a deal with you: if you can reach those stairs, get down them, and leave this building before I can kill you, I’ll allow you to remain alive.”

Mace stared into the dark pits of Janus’s eyes. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell what I know?”

Janus grunted an animal sound. “I’m
counting
on it. I want all the publicity I can get. Not that it’s done much good so far.”

Mace focused on his .38. “Do I get my gun?”

“Do we have a deal?”

“If I get my gun.”

Janus opened his right hand, allowing the revolver’s butt to swing toward Mace, upside down. “Here.”

Mace reached out, grasped the gun, and took it from Janus.

Man and Wolf stared at each other.

“Well?” Janus said.

Mace aimed the .38 at Janus’s head.

“What are you waiting for?”

He squeezed the trigger.

Patty’s .38 made a sharp pop that reverberated as the first round tore into Janus’s left cheek, blowing it off his face in a mist of blood. Janus’s head snapped back and then forward, the smile never leaving his face.

Mace took a step back and fired again, this time into Janus’s throat, exposing his esophagus as blood poured out over his naked chest. Lowering his aim, he used the running blood like a targeting laser and fired twice into Janus’s chest. Twin bullet holes appeared in the bloodytorso, but Mace barely heard the reports. Stepping back again, he lowered his aim more and fired two rounds into Janus’s stomach, dropping the creature to his knees.

Janus stared at him with disbelieving eyes, blood gurgling from his throat, and fell back against the wall, penis draped over one thigh. His eyes closed.

Deafened by the gunfire and transfixed at the bloody mess on the floor, Mace dropped his gun hand to his side. For the first time in his life, he had killed a man.

It had to be done
, he thought. Then he considered his next move. Should he leave Janus’s corpse where it lay and call Angela, remove it for disposal himself, or set the building on fire? Each scenario posed its share of benefits and problems. He only knew that he did not intend to go to prison for slaying an inhuman monster that his bosses denied even existed.

He didn’t realize that Janus’s eyes had opened until a flash of lightning outside the bathroom window illuminated the dead man’s features. Janus raised his head, a sinister smile on his lips.

It’s not possible!

But he knew better. He had come to accept many impossibilities.

With obvious pain distorting his features, Janus got up on all fours, muscles straining as sweat mixed with blood. He snarled at Mace, who heard nothing but got the point, through human lips. Then he flexed muscles all over his body: they throbbed and stretched beneath his flesh, altering his shape. Bones snapped and reformed. His feet elongated, becoming canine leg extensions. His fingers, digging into the rotting rug, extended the length of an extra joint, black claws bursting through their tips. And the bullet hole in his cheek closed. The monster roared, its body quivering as its skull expanded, the snout of a wolf pushing forward as fangs burst through its gums, pointed ears pulling back.

Mace staggered away in awe as the creature rose on its hind legs, towering seven feet tall as jet-black fur sprouted from its rippling muscles. No wonder the ancient Indians had worshipped the great Wolves; the creature resembled a demon as much as it did a man or a wolf. Mace squeezed the .38’s trigger again, knowing he had already fired all of its ammunition. He resisted the urge to hurl the empty gun at the monster.

Peeling back its lips so that its fangs jutted out at a ferocious angle, the werewolf’s head trembled with rage. As the volume in Mace’s ears increased, the malicious rasping sound that issued from the creature’s throat filled him with terror: Janus cackled at him, a most human sound.

Mace spun and fled for his life. In that instant, he appreciated all the running he had done in his free time. The floor shook as the beast pursued him, and he hurdled over the step in the middle of the hall and landed on the upper floor. It took him only a dozen paces to reach the stairway, where he glanced over his shoulder. Janus charged after him on all fours, somehow graceful despite the length of his arms and legs compared to his trunk.

Then the monster launched itself through the air at him.

Reaching out for the banister so that his momentum wouldn’t send him flying over the stairs, Mace crouched as close to the floor as he could and tucked his head forward. He saw the werewolf’s shadow enlarging on the wall ahead of him and sensed its body soaring overhead. Then he felt its front claws rip into the back of his coat, tearing his flesh with the fabric, and jerk him forward.

In midair, Janus flipped Mace over his body, hurling the detective into the space above the stairs. Flailing his arms, Mace struck the stairs at their halfway point. He tumbled along the curved wall, with Janus right behind him, and sprawled out facedown on the floor. He managed to roll onto his back just as Janus leapt off the bottom stair. As the beast’s outstretched claws reached for his neck, Mace kicked it in the groin with all his strength, sending Janus flying over him. He sat upright just in time to see Janus roll across the floor and come up in a fighting stance, eyes blazing with fury.