Lucifer's Machine by Steven Savile

Author:Steven Savile
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Action & Adventure, Thrillers & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers, Thriller, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: BadPress
Published: 2013-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Dubai

Noah snapped awake with the burn of smelling salts in the back of his nasal passage.

He tried to bring a hand up to his face to brush away the astringent chemicals, but couldn’t. His hands were bound. His eyelids fluttered open. The blurred images around him slowly came into focus.

Inside now, a small room, dank, stale air, on a carpet. Must be in the house.

How long have I been out?

The sound of snuffling approached and a warm tongue licked his face.

The dog. Kadin. The animal that had carried Orla’s bloody scalp in its mouth.

He could smell the animal’s putrid breath.

Knowing what had just been in its mouth made Noah retch.

“Get away from me you damn dirty dog,” Noah growled at the animal.

“Not an animal lover?” Omar’s voice brought clarity to his predicament.

“Where is she?” Noah spat. He rolled over onto one side to avoid the licking dog, but it easily jumped over him and continued to slobber on his face.

“He likes you,” Omar chuckled from across the room.

Out of sight.

More laughter.

The animal’s sandpaper tongue lashed at Noah’s eyes and cheeks. His front paws scraped on Noah’s chest. Noah tried calling the dog by its name.

“Down, Kadin! Sit! Kadin, back!” It didn’t help, but it amused Omar.

The Arab chuckled as he lit a cigar. “He doesn’t understand English,” he explained, conversationally.

Noah felt something inside him slip beneath the surface of reason.

Kadin lowered his head to lick Noah’s mouth, and Noah seized an opportunity. He raised his head as quickly as he could command his muscles to do it and brought his teeth down on the top of the dog’s muzzle. He clenched his jaws together, hard and fast, his attack brutal, feeling warm blood pulse into his mouth. He felt his own teeth stab into firm flesh and bone up to his gums. He wedged the dog’s head into the floor with his own and shook from side to side, utilizing the same type of motion as the animal he fought.

He emptied his pent up rage on the dumb beast.

The room filled with the dog’s shrill cries. They carried with them a true animalistic terror that gave Noah a sense of adrenaline-fueled madness he surrendered willingly to. He didn’t care that it was a dog. Right now pain was the prescription and he was the doctor.

“Enough! Stop!” Now it was Omar’s turn to ask for a reprieve, but Noah was in no mood to be merciful. He held the dog down to the floor with his teeth until its eye was pressed against the carpet, scarlet rimmed and wide open with pure shock boring into Noah’s own. The canine twisted and managed to gain purchase with its back legs, and began to push back from Noah’s jaw hold.

Noah heard Orla start to cry out from somewhere in the room, followed closely by Omar’s footsteps as he crossed the room to intercede in the man-dog fight.

Noah felt and heard the sickening tear of gristle and flesh as the dog literally pulled out of its own face to escape the grip of Noah’s incisors.

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