Grim Tidings by Caitlin Kittredge Page A

some Nazi grunt got me to buy the farm after I’d survived this war, five years of blood, mud, shit, and more dumb warlocks than any one person should have to encounter in their life.
    After a good thirty seconds, he finally started to slump, and I used the tiny slackening of his fury to shift one hand to his forehead, bringing his neck around with a crisp snap that filled up the tiny exam room.
    Jacob let out a slow, shaky breath as the soldier’s body toppled, and me with it. I was pumping blood like a fresh oil strike, rich and red as the armband on the asshole I’d just dropped. “I’m so sorry,” he said, backing away from me, fingers already scrabbling through the door. “You saved my life. I’m so sorry to leave you to this fate.”
    â€œJacob,” I said. “Jacob!” louder when he was still trying to fight his way out of the room in a panic.
    â€œYou’ll change,” he said, almost apologetically. “And then you’ll be one of them.”
    â€œ Jacob. ” I gritted. “I would really like to not bleed to death, so could you at least toss me that gauze?”
    He tilted his head to one side, watching me. I glared at him as we just stood there, the adrenaline screaming through me like a hot shot, his heart throbbing in his neck so hard I could see it jumping under his yellowed collar.
    â€œWhat is happening?” he said after what felt like a century.
    I stood up and ripped the gauze from his hand. Vertigo slammed down on top of my head, and I stumbled against the table, wrapping up my arm tight as I could. The bleeding had mostly stopped, but I was missing a chunk of skin and muscle. It’d be a couple of days before I was right and even longer before I could turn into the hound without being lame. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered as I tore off the end of the gauze with my teeth.
    Jacob muttered something that sounded like a prayer and I threw the gauze back to him. “Yeah, all right, I’m not human,” I said. “But on the bright side, I’m not trying to empty you out like a canteen, so I suggest we both find the silver lining and get the fuck out of here.”
    After a long second he nodded, and I unsnapped the soldier’s holster, pulling out his pistol. Only four bullets sat in the clip. “Perfect,” I muttered as we gingerly opened the door.
    â€œAre you a good shot?” Jacob asked, sticking so close to me he might as well have been growing out of my shoulder. “Americans are crack shots, yes?”
    â€œYou’ve been watching too many cowboy pictures,” I whispered, pausing in the lobby where the nurse had attacked me.
    The hallway was still deserted, but there was a sound coming from outside now, a rising and falling drone of screams and cries. “It’s spreading,” Jacob whispered. “There are thousands of people out there. Innocent people . . .”
    â€œI’m sorry,” I said as I peered through the frost-covered window to the outside. “But there’s nothing we can do.”
    Jacob squeezed his eyes shut, sliding a hand over his face. “I can’t do this. I was meant to die here. I just . . . I don’t want to die like this.”
    â€œJacob.” I grabbed his sleeve as he started to back away. “Don’t you quit on me now,” I said.
    He slumped. “Why do you care? You are not one of us. Those people, the sick ones—they are not either, not anymore. And they will take the lives of all the people trapped here with no more thought than you killed that man in the exam room.”
    â€œI died,” I said. It just came out, as the shapes moving beyond the door lurched and groaned, one pressing bloody hands against the glass. We pulled back, pressing ourselves against the wall. The grip of the gun was sweaty in my hand. “I died,” I said again. “And they haven’t managed to keep me down yet.”
    I