The Last Line Series One

by David Elias Jenkins

It made the club a place for the darkest most refined tastes and was a prime recruiting ground for the human cultists that had worshipped the Unseelie for centuries.

  The red curtain was drawn aside and the bouncer gestured with an elaborate sweep of his hand.

  “Welcome to Club Thorn, sir. Once you’re kinked, you’ll never straighten it out again. Need any directions? Do you have a particular preference?”

  Usher took a step forward over the threshold. The Feral magic in his blood instantly activated and his fingers and toes tingled with electricity. He was on a crossworlds site, where the atmospheres of two separate realms mingled in a heady cocktail, usually with disastrous results. The last time he remembered feeling this way was when he had fought in the Secret Arena, the unnatural and illegal boxing matches that used to be held pitting human against Unseelie.

  “Oh I’m just browsing. See where the night takes me.”

  “Well that’s just fine sir. This is also a voyeur’s paradise.”

  “Good. I like to keep a beady eye on things.”

  The bouncer tapped his pockmarked nose.

  “Just remember that what is seen cannot be unseen.”

  “Yeah. I’ve learned that over the years.”

  “Was there anything in particular that you would like to see tonight?”

  “I’m into the darker side of dark.”

  “Aren’t we all? However as it’s your first visit to us, I suggest you break yourself in slowly. The very depths of human fantasy are catered for here.”

  “I hear that the most interesting things go on in the Veil Room.”

  “Ah. Well yes sir, but you’re trying to start your journey by standing in the heart of a hurricane. The Veil Room is reserved for the true connoisseur.”

  Usher raised an eyebrow at the bouncer and smiled, crinkling the scars that mapped his face.

  “Don’t I look like a connoisseur?”

  The bouncer looked him up and down. He nodded as he came to the conclusion that the man in front of him had doubtless lived a life of intense experience. Still he had to think of health and safety issues.

  “May I ask sir, has your own veil…been lifted? I know it’s a personal question, but we do occasionally get the odd thaumaturgic ‘tourist’ trying to access the club. Can I confirm sir, that you have previously experienced entities and items from the Unseelie realm?”

  Usher was struggling to control the residual thaumaturgy that coursed in his bloodstream like LSD just waiting to cause a flashback. There was a charge in this place that seemed to enhance any magical energy. He had an inkling where that charge was emanating from. Usher flicked his eyes up to the bouncer. He could feel the heat in them and knew they were flashing a deep maroon.

  “Once or twice.”

  The bouncer’s own eyes widened and he took a step back.

  “Well, well, sir, I can see that you are no stranger to the strange. Please enter, and enjoy your time in Club Thorn. I hope you manage to push your boundaries tonight and have lots of fun.”

  Usher nodded to him and stepped past into the cloakroom.

  “Oh I plan to bring the house down.”

  23

  The jungle had started off dense and green. Progress was slow but steady.

  Isaac’s Soulblade sliced through branch and vine like butter. The thaumaturgic sigils carved into it were designed to penetrate Unseelie hide, and to begin with it made short work of the dense foliage. Soon the jungle started to change, mutated by the dark thaumaturgy emanating from the temple.

  Thorns became larger and crueller, sap darkened until it resembled coagulating blood, the leaves gathered in above to shut out the sun. In the higher branches Isaac often noticed exotic birds or troops of monkeys. As they went deeper into the interior, the monkeys stopped being cute and started to look down upon them with baleful eyes. The birds changed from brightly coloured harlequins to hunched funereal raptors.

  After another hour of hard won progress, they stood before a small clearing. They stepped out into the dappled sunlit circle and basked in the clear air and pure light. It was the most temporary of reprieves. The other side of the clearing was like a border into another world. Whatever magic was permeating the jungle had full sway on the other side. There was no more emerald green, no tropical flowers or chirruping birds. In front of them was a wall of thorns and vines pulsing red with blood. Spiny leaves of such dark green they seemed black closed in to form an impenetrable barrier in front of them.

  Arianna was looking tired and undernourished but she had managed to keep up with Isaac. They both stood there, soaked with sweat and sipping at their water bottles. Arianna watched as Isaac took the sacred stone from its pouch and held it up, looking at her with doubtful eyes. She shrugged and asked him;

  “Do you even know if it will work?”

  Isaac shook his head and shrugged.

  “I’m trying to follow Edna’s advice and have a little faith.”

  She smiled at him.

  “Alright, we’ll trust in that.”

  “Besides, you’re the most talented psychic I ever met, if you had a vision of this thing making a royal mess of that temple, that’s good enough for me. Hey, it was strong enough to wake us up from that black sleep and bring us back to each other.”

  Arianna looked for a gap in the wall of thorns but could not see even a sliver of light.

  “Will it be strong enough to get us through this?”

  Isaac took a step towards the thorns. He swore it looked as if they closed in tighter.

  “Well, I think we’re about to find out.”

  Arianna gave his arm a reassuring squeeze.

  “How you want to do this sweetie?”

  “Fancy being lantern bearer?”

  “Sure. Would you like to take responsibility for slotting anything that moves?”

  “Why that’s a great idea honey.”

  “Good. Good. Well, shall we?”

  They moved closer and Isaac held up the stone.

  “Let’s. So anyway, how are you enjoying our first proper date? I like to try and be original, so…”

  Arianna walked slowly with him, waiting on something horrific to leap from the trees.

  “Well, a restaurant would have been nice, if a little traditional. Then there’s the theatre, but so hard to have a decent conversation there…so…yes, haunted jungle would have probably been my first choice for a date.”

  “Romantic, yet spooky lighting, the finest local beverages, no one but murderers and monsters for hundreds of miles, charming local wildlife, and I understand it’s going to be a full moon tonight.”

  “Yes, all in all it’s every young girl’s dream.”

  Arianna placed her hands on the stone and slowly took it from Isaac. He brought up his carbine and tucked himself into her shoulder. Then the two STG operatives moved towards the impenetrable Unseelie jungle.

  To Isaac’s amazement, the pulsing red vines and blackened spiny leaves began to draw back and shrivel. The stone emitted a low thrum as if emanating powerful radiation and in a matter of moments a tunnel began to form in the thick wall of leaves. It looked like a time lapse film of decaying vegetation. He nudged Arianna’s shoulder and she reluctantly stepped forward into the newly created jungle path.

  “Well I’ll be…it works.”

  Arianna shivered as she stepped into the gloomy tunnel. Isaac kissed her cheek.

  “Slow and steady, honey. One foot in front of the other.”

  They moved on deeper into the mutated foliage. As they progressed, Isaac was sure he could hear the stone humming louder.

  Arianna stared at the ancient artefact in her hands. He arms were shaking and Isaac was unsure if it was fatigue or some power coming from the stone itself. Her face was dripping sweat.

  “Isaac it almost feels like it’s dragging me forward, like a water diviner. I think this thing hones in on the source of Unseelie power. It’s taking us to the temple.”

  Isaac was focussed on the dark tightl
y woven branches all around them. Every sound was muffled and damp, but he was sure every now and then he could hear things crawling. He turned on the tac-light on his carbine and illuminated small patches of the haunted jungle. He stayed in tight, never losing physical contact with Arianna’s sweat soaked shoulder. She shivered again and her eyes darted around in the gloom.

  “Arianna is your spooky sense kicking in?”

  “I hate to tell you this Isaac, but I’m sensing massive life readings all around us. I mean this place is absolutely crawling.”

  “I kinda hoped you were not gonna say that. Don’t psychics ever have good news?”

  Arianna’s voice was a little shaky.

  “You’re going to meet a tall dark stranger…”

  “yadda yadda.”

  Arianna stopped walking. The path slowly stopped opening in front of them and they stood there in the stifling gloom.

  “Isaac…”

  Isaac froze.

  “Yeah, I see them.”

  Opaque eyes had begun to appear in the darkness all around them. They glowed sickly pale like the lures of angler fish. Arianna slowly began to lower the stone.

  “What do we do Isaac?”

  As soon as the stone was moved away from creating the path ahead, the jungle began to rejuvenate and creep in towards them.

  “Keep it high honey, it’s our closest thing to a shield.”

  Something darted out of the gloom with fangs gleaming.

  Instinctively Arianna thrust the stone at it and the Spider Lord was suddenly illuminated in a golden light. It hissed and shielded its eyes with some of its horrible spiny black legs. Arianna screamed when she saw how huge the thing was in the light. Forelegs slashed at them like scythes, tearing strips of bark from the trees. The giant soft leathery body sagged against a tree as it tried to escape the burning purity of the light thaumaturgy. Isaac wasted no time and three rounds thudded into the creature’s human torso. Thick yellow blood pumped forth and the Spider Lord thrashed and tried to attack. Arianna held up the stone and it recoiled as if from searing heat. Isaac fired another controlled burst into the creature’s mutated head and it quivered and slumped down into the ferns.

  Arianna cried out.

  “Isaac behind you!”

  Isaac spun just as the second Spider Lord was tearing out from the trees. Arianna held up the stone and it twisted away with a screech, slashing with one foreleg towards Isaac’s face as it spun.

  Isaac turned and ducked, kicking out hard into the soft bulbous underbelly of the creature. He delivered a muzzle strike into the armoured face and the chitin cracked like ceramic. Fangs like harpy knives clamped down on the barrel of his carbine and nearly tore it from his grip, but Isaac squeezed the trigger and took the creature’s head off in a ragged mess of red and yellow goo.

  Arianna breathed a sigh of relief and kicked the husk away from them. Isaac scanned the darkness for another attack when his legs were taken out from beneath him. The carbine twisted in its sling and fell beneath him as he was dragged across the jungle floor. Isaac turned and saw the thick gelatinous strand of mutated silk around his ankle, tugging him closer to the huge open maw of the biggest Spider Lord he had yet seen. It had braced itself against surrounding branches and hung there in a horrific parody of awaiting an embrace. The mouth was a scarlet wound surrounded by jagged barbs. It gaped impossibly wide as it hauled him closer. Arianna screamed and leapt to his feet. She drew her combat knife and slashed at the thick organic rope that tethered Isaac’s leg. With a snap it gave and Isaac rolled and drew his pistol. He fired directly into the creature’s mouth and it gargled and choked as it fell from the branches onto its back. The spiny legs twitched and spasmed as it tried to right itself. Isaac put two into its belly as it struggled. As the underbelly popped the pus-like blood spurted out along with a horrific stench. The creature twitched once and then was still.

  Arianna looked behind her and had an awful realization. In her panic to save Isaac she had dropped the stone and it lay there on the jungle floor several metres away. Its glow was slowly fading and the two isolated humans sat very still in an ever decreasing pool of light. All around them, new eyes popped open and scuttling limbs prepared to attack.

  Isaac moved into a crouch and tensed like a spring.

  “We’re going to have to move fast. Can you make a dash for the stone.”

  Arianna was shaking with fear.

  “Yes.”

  “Then we move double time until we are out of these woods. You focus on forwards, follow the pull of the stone. I’ll take care of the Unseelie. Clear?”

  “Clear.”

  Isaac tapped her shoulder. “Go” Go!”

  Arianna leapt forward and picked up the stone. She thrust it out in front of her just as a Spider Lord leapt from the trees. As soon as Arianna’s hands were on the stone it illuminated and the Unseelie was hit with the burning light. It recoiled in pain just as Isaac put two rounds into its brain.

  “Keep going, move!”

  Arianna furrowed her brows and moved forward at a determined pace. The mutated jungle melted before the power of the stone. Isaac was there at her shoulder, gun raised. Every time an Unseelie Spider Lord attacked from the trees he put a three round burst into it. After the third monster attacked he heard a click. Arianna whispered.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Tac mag change, already on it, eyes front.”

  Isaac ejected the empty mag and had slotted the charged one into the carbine before the first hit the ground. Working parts forward, continue firing.

  “How many magazines do you have left?”

  “Just enough, maybe, depends how long this tangle goes on for. See anything other than jungle?”

  Savage faces darted out from the gloom and swiped at them but as they got closer to the temple the stone seemed to increase in power, the golden light emanating from it shone brighter and hotter until even Arianna had to half close her eyes against its gleam.

  “I can’t tell, but this thing is getting hot.”

  Another strand of fibrous silk shot out from the gloom and wrapped around Isaac’s wrist, wrenching his arm around and forcing the carbine from his hands. It swung on the sling across his chest and he was violently dragged towards the clacking mandibles that drooled in the gloom. Spiny forelegs lashed out, grabbing for his throat. Isaac drew his Soulblade and removed the first limb and a glut of steaming yellow blood poured out. With the next slash he severed the silken tether and with the third he removed the hissing head.

  Isaac and Arianna crouched there for a few moments on the jungle floor, the ever increasing light from the stone creating a little bubble around them that kept the darkness at bay. Isaac was breathing hard, waiting for the next attack but it never came. Thirty seconds went by, then sixty. They could hear the curses and hissing Unseelie tongue out there in the dark but not one more Spider Lord dared to come forward within the circle of light.

  “I don’t know…how much longer I can keep this up. If we don’t get out of these woods soon, one of them is going to get lucky.”

  Arianna shielded the stone with her arms and narrowed her eyes.

  “This thing is getting brighter Isaac, and stronger. The closer we get to the temple. They don’t want to come near it.”

  Isaac slowly stood. His body ached and he needed rest and food, but the only way was forward into danger. He nodded to Arianna and she stood up and pointed the stone in the direction it was already dragging her.

  She walked forward and the jungle withered before them. Within a few feet it ended and Isaac laughed in disbelief as they stared out into a clearing. At its centre was a crumbling pyramid bound with vines and furred with moss. The stone glowed ever brighter.

  “Isaac…”

  “I see it. We’re here.”

  Before them stood the earthly birthplace of the mother of monsters and the remains of the oldest World Tree.

  The Temple of Lilith.

  24

  I’m
in. And somewhere in here are the Bones of Lilith.

  Inside Club Thorn, the cloakroom attendant gave Usher a little bow. He was an ugly, sallow faced man with an absurdly high forehead and when he grinned Usher noticed sharp teeth protruding from a pronounced under-bite. In the dim light he could have passed as almost human but Usher knew there was Unseelie blood in him. When the Unseelie took female captives they were often objects of lust and abuse for decades. Occasionally this resulted in offspring that were kept as a servant class, shunned as impure by the xenophobic Unseelie. Usher handed over his motorcycle helmet and thick protective gloves. He chose to keep his biker jacket on because it was essentially a thick layer of black Kevlar, and it concealed the weapons he had brought with him. The half-breed attendant gave Usher a surly nod and a numbered ticket then turned from his desk and wandered back into the gloomy cloakroom.

  Usher walked through a second set of thick dark mahogany doors and he was in the midst of the fetish floor.

  The corridor he stood in was long and hung with thick velvet drapes in purple and crimson. Eerie green spotlights were set deep into the ceiling. With each step forward the one just ahead of Usher illuminated and the ones behind slowly faded. Rooms led off to the left and right, the curtains pulled wide to allow access to whatever indulgence was taking place within.

  Usher spoke quietly into his covert throat mike.

  “Empire One this is Exorcist. Did you make it to the party?”

  A few tense moments passed and then Usher was relieved to hear the familiar voice of Santiago in his ear.

  “Receiving, boss. We’re on the club floor. Stromberg and Jeter with me. Sorry if the signal’s bad the band is pretty loud.”

  “Yeah, I can hear the bass through the floor here. Eyes on target?”

  “Not yet. It’s crowded up here. Mainly just freaks and thrill seekers, a few amateur thaumaturgists and occult nerds, and definitely some cultists. Any luck in the fetish rooms?”

  “Just in. I’m on my way up to you. I’ll start clearing these rooms as I go.”

  A pause and Usher attempted to look casual as two partygoers in fetish gear ran past him laughing and bumped into him. The woman, whose blue eyes shone from beneath a leather kitten mask, stopped and smiled up at him.