03 - Evolution by Greg Cox - (ebook by Undead) Read Free Book Online

trigger of her handgun and fired repeatedly at the monster. Gunshots
echoed inside the mine, and the muzzle of the pistol flashed in the
darkness as she emptied an entire clip of silver bullets into the
creature.
    Would that be enough to kill the beast? Michael watched
anxiously, waiting for the werewolf to either fall over dead or come
charging at them. But the monster seemed to have no reaction to the
barrage of silver bullets. Its savage face remained exactly where it
was, its open jaws frozen in the same fixed expression. Ivory fangs
glinted in the beam of the searchlight. Cobalt eyes stared glassily into
space.
    Wait a sec, Michael thought. Something’s not right here.
    Selene appeared to have reached the same conclusion. She
let up on the trigger and swept the beam over the unmoving creature
before them. Michael saw now that the werewolf was hanging lifelessly in
a cagelike apparatus at the far end of the chamber. Thick lengths of
chain were looped beneath the monster’s underarms, suspending the body
from the ceiling. A metallic harness was fastened around the werewolf’s
neck and snout. Old wounds could be glimpsed through its shaggy black
pelt. Its jaws were locked in a rictus of agony, not attack.
    No blood flowed from the multiple bullet holes Selene
had just inflicted on the beast. She lowered her gun and glanced at
Michael.
    “I may have overreacted,” she said, with just a trace of
embarrassment in her voice.
    No shit, Michael thought.
The werewolf was obviously long dead. Michael’s talons retracted back
into his fingers and his eyes turned human once more. His heartbeat
slowed to a less frenetic pace. Obviously, the dead creature posed no
threat to them. Talk about a shock, though!
    He couldn’t help noticing how quickly he had started to
transform at the sight of a potential enemy. He had changed without
thinking, just as he had during that final battle with Viktor back in
the underworld. Was his bizarre new existence already becoming second
nature to him? The change had felt as natural as breathing, which scared
him more than a little.
    Get used to it, he told
himself harshly. This is who you are now.
    Easier said than done, another part of his mind answered back.
    Tucking her pistol back beneath her coat, Selene located
a fuse box on the opposite wall. She opened the box and reset the
tripped switches. A generator hummed somewhere deeper inside the mine.
Fluorescent lights flickered to life overhead. The sudden illumination
hurt Michael’s eyes and he blinked against the glare.
    The dead werewolf could be seen more easily now. Looking
closer, Michael saw that the body had been hooked up to various pieces
of sophisticated medical technology, including an electrocardiogram,
intracranial-pressure monitor, Swan-Ganz catheter, a mobile X-ray unit,
and your basic physiologic monitor, all top-of-the-line. Electrodes were
connected to shaved portions of the werewolf’s anatomy. A crash cart
held an emergency defibrillator, just in case the Death Dealers had
needed to revive one of their lycan guinea pigs. A metal tray rested on
a stainless-steel counter next to the open cage. Scalpels, scissors,
forceps, retractors, hemostats, and other surgical tools were scattered
atop the tray. He scowled at the obvious bloodstains on the instruments;
maintaining a sterile environment was obviously not a priority.
Anesthetics were conspicuously absent.
    Michael recalled the safe house he and Selene had
briefly stayed at in the city, after their escape from the vampires’
mansion. Selene had mentioned that lycan prisoners were sometimes
interrogated at such locations. From the looks of things here, those
prisoners also got turned into guinea pigs on occasion—by vampire
scientists looking for newer and better ways to exterminate their
ancient foes?
    He felt a stab of sympathy for the poor, dead beast.
Only a few hours ago, Michael had been strapped to an examination