Excerpt: Sullivan Blood

PROLOGUE

It was a dark and stormy night, and as Oliver had never been a fan of bad weather, nor clichés, he was rather displeased about it.

He kept his head lowered throughout the entire journey, staring hard at the back of Dante's shoulders to avoid looking at the road ahead, or rather the tiny arc of light that illuminated maybe ten feet in front of them at any one time. He hated how dark it got here at night and the overcast skies and torrential downpour weren't helping to settle his nerves at all.

He only knew they'd arrived at their destination when the bike slowed, the roar of its engine dying down to a low, pleasant grumble before silencing completely. The headlight went off and they were plunged into almost complete darkness, bar a few rays of moonlight escaping between the clouds overhead. Dante straightened up and kicked down the stand, turning to look over his shoulder at Oliver, though it was a fruitless exercise. "Lights or no lights?"

"Lights," Oliver replied, releasing his grip on Dante's waist and patting at his own chest until his fingers collided with a small rectangular object that was attached to a belt he wore across his chest. He flipped a switch on its underside and suddenly Dante's face was bathed in a bright, white light. He winced and turned away. "Sorry," Oliver said, not sounding very sorry at all.

He climbed off the back of the bike while Dante turned on his own light and turned to look around the area. They'd stopped by the side of a country road, probably not far from their destination. He turned back to Dante. "How far is it?"

"Not far," Dante said, distracted as he readjusted the pistol holsters on his thighs, before unsheathing his preferred weapon: a wide bladed machete. "If we head down this road for about another ten yards we'll find the entrance to the site."

"Awesome," Oliver muttered, pulling his own pistols out of their holsters and loading them. "Guess we better get to work."

They set of down the road at a jog, the light from their PLS's swinging back and forth erratically. Sure enough, after about ten yards they spotted what looked like a new road and turned onto it, slowing to a brisk walk. Neither of them said anything, making a point to be as quiet as possible.

It wasn't long before they found the entrance gate to the building site and they stopped, crouching behind one of the cheaply made pillars. Oliver poked his head around the side, eyeing a little trailer that stood in the open ground between the first two houses, harsh orange light peeking out of the tiny windows. He scowled at it in disbelief before pulling back. "There are security guards here," he growled, "What the hell are they doing here? I thought the suits were going to clear out all the civilians?"

Dante leaned over Oliver and peeked around the corner himself, before falling back on his haunches and scuffing a hand over his cropped black hair. "There must have been a mix up. It happens sometimes. Aw, shit." He looked up at Oliver and shrugged helplessly. "What do we do?"

"We have to finish the job. We'll just... lure it as far away from the trailer as we can and kill it," Oliver said. He didn't sound very certain.

"Yeah, but what if they see us? They'll have security cameras set up."

Oliver hesitated for a long moment, gnawing on his lower lip as he thought. Eventually though, he just shook his head and said, "It doesn't matter. That's Georgia's problem. She shouldn't have any difficulty explaining why we were running around a building site looking like Resident Evil cosplayers."

"You're Leon," Dante murmured, a hint of amusement in his voice. Oliver snorted and shoved him, almost making the larger boy over-balance and fall in a puddle.

"Okay, we can just skip through the alleyways between the houses. They shouldn't have security cameras there. We should turn our lights off though, they'll be able to see those, and besides, there's enough light from the trailer to make it up to the nest without them." Oliver nodded at Dante expectantly, "Right?"

Dante nodded back, a quick sharp jerk of his head. "Right. We will be able to turn them back on at the nest though, won't we? I hate fighting in the dark."

"Well, yeah. I'd rather turn on my light and get caught by the security guards then leave it off and get eaten," Oliver replied off-handedly. "We ready to go?"

Dante responded by switching off his PLS and hefting the machete in his right hand. Oliver smiled and turned his off as well. "Good luck to us, I guess," he murmured, before hopping up and darting through the gate and across the yard towards the nearest house in a crouch. He could hear Dante's footsteps right behind him, but he'd expected nothing less.

All but diving into the alley beside the house, Oliver skidded to a halt, taking a moment to check the narrow area for threats. He could feel Dante's breath ruffling the hair on the back of his head and reached back, tapping twice on his forearm to signal that the alleyway was empty. Dante tapped him back, once on the back of his shoulder before scooting around Oliver and setting off in front of him. Oliver followed, taking out one of his pistols and holding it in front of him, wary now that they drawing closer to the nest.

Darting between the houses like heavily armed foxes, they reached their destination in no time at all. They hunkered down in the shadows of one house's gas tank and eyed the row of three houses opposite, all far larger than the others on the estate.

"Falkner said it was the middle one, didn’t he?" Dante said.

"Yeah, but he warned me that it might have moved into one of the others. We'll check the middle one first, though," Oliver replied. He fought back the urge to shiver. He was soaked to the bone and absolutely freezing.

Dante nodded and leaned forward a little, peering out from behind the gas tank to check for security guards or cameras. Not seeing anything, he settled back again and switched on his PLS, gesturing for Oliver to do the same. The bright light stunned Oliver making him hiss and he placed a hand over the torch to make it less visible to guards, cameras or... anything else that may have been watching. He noted with approval that Dante had done the same.

"Let's go," he whispered, standing up and scurrying across the final space to the large house in the middle, ducking into the shadows beside it. This time he didn't stop to check, instead scanning the shadows and the walls above him as he moved.

"Clear," Dante said behind him. "Go, get round the back."

Oliver hurried along the little paved path at the side of the house, almost running into the gate at the end. He hopped up on his tip toes, reaching over the top to try and undo the lock on the other side, only to find himself thwarted by his own short stature. He felt a hand on his waist and he was gently pushed to the side by Dante who stepped into his place and reached over, unlocking it with sickening ease. Oliver nodded his thanks at his partner before slipping through into the back garden.

The wet grass squelched unpleasantly as Dante went to take his place in the centre of the garden to stand watch, trading his machete for the shotgun strapped to his back. Oliver ignored him and went to the back door, kneeling in front of it and taking his favourite torque wrench and pick from the pouch on his boot.

It didn't take him long to unlock the door, thanks to practice and the fact that the lock wasn't a terribly difficult one to open. Popping his tools away again, Oliver turned and gestured for Dante to join him by the door. Taking his place in front of the door, Dante levelled his shotgun, ready to shoot anything that might be standing on the other side. Oliver, still crouched on the back step, reached up and curled his hand around the door handle, ready to slap his hands over his ears at any moment.

He turned the handle and pushed it open slowly, edging back to crouch by Dante's foot as the door swung wide, revealing what looked like an unfurnished kitchen. The light from Dante's PLS only illuminated the part in front of the door, the ceiling and corners of the room almost completely in darkness. Oliver peered around the corner cautiously, searching for any sign of movement. He didn't see anything. Relieved, he started to relax.

However, just when he was about to sit back and tell Dante that the room was clear, something on the ceiling in the corner of the room caught his eye. It was a tiny movement. He wouldn’t have seen it at all, if he hadn't been so charged with adrenaline. His eyes widened slightly and he fixed his gaze on the corner, not daring to twitch even a single muscle lest he provoke it to attack.

It stayed completely silent, and that worried Oliver. One spindly grey arm crept down the wall, splaying its hand out and digging wickedly long claws into the plaster. One of the fingers was missing, and two others were fused together. Oliver couldn't repress the disgusted shudder that rippled through him at the sight of the warped hand.

"Dante," he started to whisper but once again he was distracted by another movement. This time, however, it was on the opposite side of the kitchen, by the door to the entrance hall. A cold feeling, like having a metal rod jammed down his spine struck him and he fought the urge to jump up and run. The second one was creeping across the kitchen floor, almost completely flat on the ground. It was stalking them.

As it turned out, Oliver didn't have to worry about telling Dante, as he seemed to have already cottoned on to the bad situation they were in already. He bumped his shin against Oliver's back to get his attention, before whispering, "There's another one on the roof... right above us."

Oliver's initial urge was to panic and run, but he knew better than to do something so stupid. It was difficult but he forced himself to stay where he was, watching the two in the kitchen while Dante focused on the one above them.

"What are we going to do?" he hissed. It wasn't as quiet as he'd been hoping and the creature on the ceiling uttered a low, threatening whine.

"I dunno," Dante replied, managing to be considerably quieter than Oliver. His voice was shaking and that, more so than even the monsters before him, scared Oliver to death. "I think we should run."

Oliver's head twitched towards Dante, but he caught himself just in time to stop the movement. The one on the floor saw the movement, however, and hissed, swiping at him. Despite the fact it was almost ten feet away from him, Oliver still had to fight down the urge to recoil and stumble away. "We can run. They'll chase us and they're faster..."

"I don't see that we have any other choice," Dante shot back. "If we stay here they're going to attack."

Even though he knew Dante was right, Oliver still couldn't bring himself to believe this was a good idea. He'd always been taught never to turn his back on a leech, and yet he had no other choice now. His thoughts staggered for a moment, and the thing on the ceiling edged downwards slowly.

"All right."

"Do you have any flash bombs?" Dante whispered. Oliver was pleased to hear his tone was no longer shaking now that he had a clear goal in mind.

"Yeah."

Oliver knew where he was going with this, and never once taking his eyes off the two creatures in front of him, he edged his hand towards the three flash grenades hooked onto the belt at the back of his left hip. The leech on the floor gave a soft, warning growl, but made no move to attack yet.

"On three," Dante said. Oliver nodded. "One." Oliver inched his free hand to the grenade, earning another whine. "Two." Oliver gripped the pin in the top of the grenade lightly in his hand. "Three."

Oliver pulled the pin and threw it into the kitchen as Dante turned on his heel and darted away. He only had a split second to catch the enraged look on the creatures' faces as they screeched at him, before he was on his feet and pounding after Dante.

This time as they fled through the alleyways and across gardens, neither of them paid the security cameras any heed. Oliver hoped that the guards, if they saw them, wouldn't come out of the trailer and stumble across three furious monsters, but the thought passed quickly enough. He couldn't waste time worrying about a couple of strangers when he and his partner still weren't safe.

Dante was ahead of him, but not by much and when they skidded into the road outside of the estate, Oliver put on a burst of speed, almost drawing level with him. Even so, Dante reached the bike first and was already on it and fumbling with the keys when Oliver staggered to a stop beside him. "Get on," he snapped and Oliver did that, grabbing his helmet from under the seat first before settling in behind Dante.

The engine roared to life suddenly, but it still didn't drown out the sudden shriek from the trees at the side of the road. Dante shot them a startled glance, but that was all, and as soon as Oliver clutched at his waist he pulled away, the tires squealing against the wet tarmac.

Oliver shivered, but this tie it wasn't from the cold, but rather the excess adrenaline that trickled through his limbs. His fingers twitched against Dante's sides and he tried not to look at the trees speeding past on either side for fear of what he might see in them. Instead he stared at the back of Dante's head, feeling a distant pang of worry that his partner hadn't put on a helmet in his rush to get them away from the building site.

As soon as they got back to headquarters, Oliver was getting someone fired for this screw up. "There was only supposed to be one," he murmured, mostly to himself since he doubted Dante could hear him.

"That was-" Dante started to say, before he fell silent again and shook his head a little. Oliver could feel his stomach twitching as he took uneven, shaky breaths. "Someone really dropped the ball here, Oliver. There was only supposed to be one."

Oliver nodded and opened his mouth to reply, to vent his frustrations over what had just happened, but he never got that far. He spotted the flash of white in the trees and frowned, not realising what it was until it was too late. His grip on Dante's waist tightened and he gasped, yelping Dante's name as the white van bolted out of a side road and into their path. Dante hadn't seen it and he swerved. The wheels skidded and lost their grip on the wet tarmac, sending them veering into the verge. Oliver grunted as the bike fell, landing on his leg, but he still heard the sickening thud as Dante's head hit the ground.

Shivering and stunned, Oliver stared at the back of his motionless partner's head. He didn't see the driver of the white van look out of the window, nor did he see him smile. He heard him drive away, however, and the fear the sound instilled in him was enough to make him reach into his jacket for his phone. His vision was blurring and the ache in his leg was stealing his breath, but he managed to hit the Mayday button on his phone before his consciousness escaped him entirely.