“A little,” said Sam. Katelynn shook her head.
Damon sighed. Weapon in hand, he turned to face them, a grim expression on his face.
“Let’s end this,” he said.
The three of them left without a word to the rest of Damon’s staff; they simply had no time to explain.
Like a flashback to that evening three months before, the three of them climbed into Damon’s Bronco and headed across town as a light rain began to fall.
When they arrived at the university campus, Damon made a quick stop at the security office to obtain the keys to the campus buildings. About once a month he personally patrolled the grounds, seeing and being seen, so the guard on duty found nothing strange in his request.
Once Damon returned to the vehicle, he drove them over to Keating Hall.
The building loomed above them, and the very sight of it sent chills up Katelynn’s spine. She knew what was hiding inside its cold stone walls.It will be a miracle if we make it out alive, she thought.
Sam, on the other hand, stared at the structure with fierce expectation. He, too, knew what awaited them there, but he welcomed the challenge. That thing had killed his best friend, threatened a woman he cared deeply for, and terrorized the town he called home. It was due for a reckoning, and Sam intended to be the one to deliver it.
It was ironic that the Nightshade had chosen this place for the final showdown. Keating Hall had been built in the late 1800s and was constructed in a Renaissance style. It looked like a medieval castle, the clock tower rising over the roof like a keep rising over a castle’s battlements. He had written it into many a short story, the building’s very nature firing his imagination.
Now, fiction would become reality.
Sam was determined to write the ending his way.
Once out of the car, Katelynn and Sam huddled out of the rain on the steps in front of the entrance while Damon retrieved his rifle from the trunk. Damon knew the weapon wouldn’t stop the beast; the night they rescued Jake had proven that. It would slow it down, however, and that’s what the plan called for. Damon was to use the weapon to render the beast momentarily incapacitated, just long enough for Katelynn and Sam to do the rest.
It was a military axiom that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and Damon prayed that just this once, that would prove false.
Damon unlocked Keating’s front door, and the others followed him inside.
The three of them turned on the flashlights they’d brought with them and set off down the hall.
Katelynn’s vision had shown the Nightshade to be inside the clock tower that rose above the main building, so they quickly climbed to the top floor.
Damon held up his hand for quiet and listened to any sound in the silence as the echoes of their footsteps in the empty building died away.
He heard nothing besides their own breathing.
The corridor stretched directly ahead of them. In order to gain entry to the tower, they had to traverse the corridor, exit through the door at the other end, climb the stairs just beyond, cross the roof to the tower itself, go through another door, and climb another set of steps to the chamber at the top. It was there that they expected to find the Nightshade.
They’d be exposed to attack from the front and behind the entire time.
Not a very comforting thought,Damon thought to himself.
A sudden crash of thunder from the storm outside was accompanied seconds later by a flash of lightning. For a moment the corridor before them was fully illuminated. Damon was relieved to see that it was empty.
“Looks okay,” he said to the others. “Let’s go.” He started down the hall.
About time,Sam thought as he set out after Damon, Katelynn between them. He knew Damon was correct in being cautious, but the rage he felt was growing. It was like a living thing inside him, and he fought to control it, for he knew that it could work against him, blinding his perceptions and clouding his judgment.
When they reached the other end of the hall, Damon slowly pushed open the door, looked around, and signaled them forward. Passing through the doorway, they emerged onto the roof.
From where they stood, the tower was directly ahead of them, some fifty feet away. The roof between them was shrouded in darkness, but the tower itself was brilliantly lit by the large spotlights erected along the roof’s edge and shining on the face of the tower itself. The rain dashed down upon the trio and in just a few steps they were soaked through to the skin.
Maybe she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of one eye, or heard the sudden sound of an extra set of footfalls striking the wet stone of the rooftop; Katelynn wasn’t ever certain what made her turn and glance back the way they had come. Whatever the reason, she was in time to discover that there was someone on the rooftop with them.
Whoever it was was running directly toward them.
Her mind registered all this in the space of a heartbeat.
She reacted without thought.
“Behind us!” she cried.
The figure was almost upon them when Katelynn dived to her right.
She acted not a moment too soon. As she fell, she heard the whistle of something slice through the air less than an inch above her head and knew in that instant that she had come perilously close to dying.
The sound of metal striking metal reached her ears and Katelynn looked frantically toward the sound. Sam stood nearby, frozen in indecision.
Damon stood several feet away, facing them but backpedaling furiously as a figure in a hooded robe closed in on him. Damon’s hands were empty; the rifle he’d been holding only moments before now missing.
Katelynn rose to her feet and tried desperately to figure out what to do in order to help Damon.
It was obvious the man was playing with Damon. The newcomer was dressed in the tattered remnants of what once had been a rather luxurious robe, the front of which was discolored with a dark stain. In the man’s hands was a bejeweled sword, something that would have looked more in place in the Smithsonian than on a rain-slick roof in the hands of a madman. The sword came closer with each slash and jab. The sheriff frantically skipped backward, away from its razor-sharp edge.
As the two maneuvered, Katelynn was able to get a good look at the man’s face. It was twisted into an expression of utter fury, his flesh so gaunt it appeared to have been stretched across the frame of his bones. Within this mask eyes gleamed with fanatical hatred.
Despite the man’s appearance, Katelynn had no trouble recognizing him.
Hudson Blake.
Katelynn watched as Blake swung his weapon, and this time Damon proved to be too slow in getting out of the way. A cry of pain filled the air and blood flowed as the sword opened a long, shallow cut on Damon’s ribs as he leapt to the side in an effort to avoid the blow.
Damon’s frantic attempts to avoid the blade by twisting and turning away from it were preventing him from drawing his revolver, leaving him all but defenseless against the attack.
Katelynn knew she and Sam had to do something quickly to help.
She glanced around frantically, looking for a weapon, and spotted Damon’s rifle lying against the roof’s parapet.
She went after it, knowing she had only seconds before Blake tired of the game and skewered Damon.
Sam watched as Blake suddenly switched tactics and thrust his weapon point first at Damon. A cry of pain quickly followed and Sam watched in horror as Damon collapsed onto the rooftop.
The blade of Blake’s sword glistened.
Katelynn swung the rifle in Blake’s direction, her hands unfamiliar on the stock.
The old man was faster than either she or Sam could have ever expected.