The Last Coven (The Tome of Bill Book 8)

by Rick Gualtieri

  Moving with both precision and speed, he flayed me alive while the cheers of the crowd increased to frenzied howls. He was the master of the First Coven, leader of all vampires, and now it was becoming painfully obvious why. I couldn’t help but think he’d been holding back during the battle with Calibra, letting her shoot her load before acting, letting the rest of us tire ourselves out while he remained fresh.

  Smart guy. Much smarter than me apparently.

  He parted skin and muscle while I could do nothing more than watch, re-crippling me every few seconds before I could heal. At last, in a spray of blood, my sternum was revealed. At that point, shock was setting in. Pain, blood loss, it was taking a toll on me, but in a way that left me feeling a bit detached. So I watched in fascination as he set to work carving it out of me.

  His goal became clear. He was going to gut me in front of the crowd, then pluck my heart right out of my chest like he was Mola fucking Ram, while I turned to ash beneath him.

  Kind of cool, I guess, if one were on the viewing end.

  “Fuck this shit!” Sally stepped from the crowd behind Alex, her big-ass gun back in hand. She raised it, took aim, and then there came a blur of motion as James appeared by her side. He disarmed her handily, gave her a single shake of his head, then dragged her back to the sidelines against her will.

  I threw him a smile, although I wasn’t certain if he saw it. Though I doubted Sally would see things his way, I appreciated what he was doing. He was saving her life. Things might be over for me. Alex might have secured supreme power for himself, but at least she would be alive, she and the rest of my friends.

  I had no way of knowing what kind of hell on Earth awaited them, but I had to think that together they stood a chance of surviving it.

  It was all I had left.

  “You fought well, Freewill,” Alex said, tearing the bony plate out of my chest. “Indeed, I am sorry things have come to this. Know that, despite everything, I was quite fond of you.”

  I opened my mouth to say something dignified, like how I was pretty sure he was fond of my cock, but a high-pitched scream drowned me out.

  Oddly enough, it wasn’t coming from me.

  PROPS TO THE PROPHECY

  At first I thought the keening wail might be from one of my supporters, seeing as how I’d gotten my ass soundly beaten, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

  Judging from the look on Alex’s face, he heard it, too.

  The thing was, I recognized the voice making it, which was impossible because its owner no longer had the capacity for sound ... other than maybe the occasional thud as she clonked around in her fish tank. That’s when I realized Calibra’s voice was crying out in my mind, loud and clear – a scream of pain, anguish, fear, and perhaps most of all, outrage.

  Alex stood from where he’d been carving Freewill flank steaks and looked around, leaving me to enjoy the gruesome sight of my body knitting itself back together. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve had a chance to watch your own ribcage regrow.

  NO! You must stop her!

  The psychic conniption became coherent words and a moment later, Alex focused on something in the direction where The Source lay.

  “STEP ASIDE!!”

  The crowd parted in front of him, and I beheld the cause of his and Calibra’s concern. Sheila stood at the edge of The Source, her sword drawn.

  That in itself wasn’t all that unusual. What caused my breath to catch in my throat, however, was who she had the blessed weapon pointed at – Tom.

  * * *

  I’d thought I was done for. Between my embarrassing defeat and the blood loss, my body was struggling against turning back to normal again. All of that went out the window once I saw my best friend in this world about to be inexplicably skewered by the girl I once thought to be my world.

  Horror, rage – all of it coursed through me, bringing with it a wave of adrenaline that got me back on my feet even as my wounds were still healing.

  What the ever-living fuck? Had she gone crazy or something? I’d been working to fix things, stop Alex. Sure, I’d been doing a shit job of it, but it was all in the name of saving her and the rest of my friends.

  So why this and why now?

  The agony of my battle with Alex, followed by this ... betrayal, left me in neither the condition nor the mood to fight Dr. Death’s anger.

  The assembled crowd, including the most powerful vampires on the planet, watched stunned as this unfolded, stepping aside for me much as they did for Alex as we marched toward The Source.

  “Stop!” I yelled.

  Alex, perhaps thinking I was speaking to him, turned to me, his eyes pitch black. “I hereby suspend our duel, Freewill, but do not seek to interfere in this, otherwise I will be forced to...”

  I ignored him. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  Sheila turned to me, sadness and regret in her eyes, but also resolve. Though she spoke softly, I could hear every word with painful clarity. “I’m sorry, Bill. This is the only way.”

  “I will warn you once and only once, Shining One,” Alex said, stalking toward her with deliberate steps. “If you do not stand down from whatever it is you are doing and leave this place immediately, I will declare our truce null and void. Neither you nor your friends shall leave here alive. Do not cross me, girl.”

  Had she challenged Alex to a fight, or stepped in to help me with mine, I would have supported her to the end and beyond, but this ... dragging my best friend to the shore of this magical abomination, seemingly with the purpose of killing him, left me with serious concerns as to her state of mind.

  In short, insane as it might be, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stop Alex.

  Alex, however, didn’t see things that way as I caught up to him. He spun back toward me, so quickly I didn’t see him move until he already had his hand around my throat. “Your insolence grows tiresome. I should have killed you after the first report of your existence. It is an oversight I shall rectify n...”

  A shrill shriek reverberated across the cavern. Distracted as he was, Alex was caught off guard by the blur of movement that crossed directly behind him. Gan stopped a few feet away and shook off her hand, sending drops of blood flying.

  Alex crumbled to his knees, releasing his grip upon me. I backed up a step and saw what had been done. She’d hit him with a drive-by attack that had severed both of his Achilles tendons. Insanely strong as he was, even he couldn’t remain on his feet after something like that.

  “The time of the prophecy has come,” she said to him, her voice that of the woman she would never grow to be. “You will not interfere with my love’s destiny.”

  Okay then, good to see the crazy was in full effect.

  “Prefect Gansetseg?” Alex asked, eyes wide. “What is this treachery?”

  “What you call treachery, Lord Alexander,” she replied, “I call a changing of the guard. The old ways die today and in their place a new order shall rise, one that I and my beloved shall rule hand in hand.”

  I was sorely tempted to mention that she was on her own on this one, but Alex was a step ahead of me. “I have tolerated your impetuousness for too long. TO YOUR KNEES, WHELP!!”

  Needless to say, he seemed a wee bit surprised when that didn’t happen.

  “I am not the one currently on my knees, false conqueror. Nor shall I ever bend them to you again.” She stepped in, claws at the ready.

  Gan was fast for her age, but not nearly at Alex’s level. Normally, she would be no match for him, but she’d caught him unawares, especially with the news his compulsions were no longer worth dick as far as she was concerned. His throat vanished in a mist of red, and he dropped to all fours, gasping.

  I merely stood there gawking as she continued to lay into him, too flabbergasted by the sheer amount of balls weighing this crazy little girl down. After a moment, though, she looked my way and said, “Go, my love. This is your time. Make me proud.”

  I spared
a glance back toward the vampires and whatnot watching this spectacle, but I needn’t have bothered. None of them looked like they wanted any part of this. Go figure, it was only at the end of the world that the assembled members of the vampire nation decided to play it passive aggressive.

  That’s when I remembered what I was trying to stop. Shit! I spun to find Sheila raising her sword. Tom wasn’t fighting back for some reason. He stood there calmly, as if allowing this. What the fuck had she done to him?

  Trusting Gan to keep Alex busy, I raced past them with everything I had and managed to drag Tom out of the way at the last possible moment.

  My roommate landed on his ass, while Sheila hit nothing but air. When she recovered, she found me standing between her and her intended target. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you need to stop it now.”

  “Don’t you understand?” she replied, sounding desperate. “This needs to be done.”

  “Yeah, I understand. It’s been a long day for us all, but there are much better targets here to point that at.”

  “No, you don’t. Didn’t you see it earlier? The energy from his body. It hit me when I was standing in ... there. Everything stopped for a moment. Calibra, you, the mages, even me. It was like ... what do you call those things that disrupt electrical power?”

  “An electromagnetic pulse?” Tom offered from behind me.

  “Yeah, that.”

  “So?” I asked.

  “So, don’t you see? That was one measly bolt of energy and it brought everything here to its knees. We need to do that again, but with more, a lot more. Don’t you get it? We can still stop this.”

  I did get it, but this was crazy. Coming down here, we knew that sacrifices might need to be made. But to outright murder one of our own? And for something that might not have been anything more than a momentary glitch? That was a step too batshit, even for me. “You don’t know what that will do, if it will even work.”

  “No I don’t,” she agreed. “But we need to try, and we need to do it with everything we have and hope it’s enough to shut this place down for good.”

  “You’ll kill Tom, that’s the only thing certain here. Are you willing to do that for nothing more than a guess?”

  “Christy didn’t know what her spell would do either. The only thing any of us know for sure is what will happen if we let that monster have this place.”

  She had a point on that last one. Mind you, that assumed Calibra was cooperative, which she probably wouldn’t be. It could be years, centuries, or never before Alex plumbed The Source’s mysteries. He was a lot of things, but a mage wasn’t one of them.

  Yeah, maybe I was grasping at straws, but so was she.

  “It’s okay, man, I...” Tom’s hand fell on my shoulder. “Whoa! You are fucking rock hard ... and just to clarify, I’m not talking about your dick.”

  I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, not willing to let Sheila out of my sight. “What the fuck are you still doing here? Run before she runs you through.”

  “I know what she’s going to do. I’m cool with it.”

  “What?! Is your brain leaking out of that hole in you? Why would you even say that?”

  “Because...” He lowered his voice. “Don’t think I’ve gone all pussified saying this, but it’s because of Christy. She’s hurt. She can’t finish this, but I can ... for her. I mean, I ... y’know.”

  “Love her?”

  “Yeah, that’s it.”

  “That’s why you can’t do this,” I argued, keeping between the two of them. “She needs you. Your daughter needs you.”

  “Daughter? I thought she didn’t want to know.”

  “I found out when Calibra was torturing her. I kinda saw inside her stomach. Hard to explain.”

  “Thanks for ruining the surprise, asshole.”

  It was all I could do to keep from decking the fucking idiot. “There won’t be a surprise if you’re dead!”

  “Who said anything about dying?” he replied. “So I have to live as a doll for a while. I can deal. Eventually, Christy will figure something out.”

  “You don’t know that.” I turned to Sheila. “Neither of you do!”

  “A daughter,” Tom mused from behind me. “How awesome would it be if she grew up to be a lesbian porn star?”

  “Seriously?!” I spat.

  He grinned that dumbass grin of his at me, but then his expression grew serious. “But she needs a world to grow up in if that’s going to happen, and this is the best way to ensure it.”

  “It’s your choice,” Sheila said and I could tell by her voice that she was close to tears. “But if we’re going to do this, it has to be now.”

  “I’m in,” he said resolutely. “For Christy and for my little girl.”

  I looked in his eyes and saw something I never thought I’d see – the serious adult buried somewhere deep inside of him looking back at me. Tom had been physically grown for some time now, but he was finally a man, making a man’s decision.

  Sheila was right. It was his choice to make. They both were right.

  The thing was, I just couldn’t bring myself to let them do it. I’d already watched once as my best friend died. It had almost sent me over the edge, almost made me give in to the monster clawing away inside my head. I didn’t want to go through that again. I didn’t want to go back to Christy and explain how I could have saved him, yet chose not to.

  Maybe if we had more assurances. If we knew for a fact this would work, then...

  Oh, who was I kidding?

  I’d been willing to sacrifice myself. But this, this I couldn’t allow, even if it meant that in doing so I was fulfilling my part of that goddamned prophecy. That, in choosing this path, choosing to save my friend, I would become the champion of the very darkness I had fought so hard against.

  “Sorry, bud,” I whispered.

  “For wh...?”

  I popped him in the face before he could reply, knocking him to the ground.

  Then I turned to Sheila, eyes blackened and claws extended.

  “You’re going to have to get through me first.”

  THE MAIN EVENT

  “You do know you didn’t actually knock me out, right?”

  Fucking moron. “Stay down!” I ordered my roommate.

  In front of me, Sheila’s aura ignited, bright and powerful. Whether the poison was fully out of her system or The Source had somehow given her a recharge, she was back to full. Oddly enough, that seemed fitting.

  “Get out of my way, Bill.”

  “No.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Why? I’m doing this for my friend,” I said. “I’m doing this for Christy and her baby.”

  “And you think I’m not?” she snapped. Tears stood out in her eyes, but her gaze hardened. “Now move.”

  “No chance.”

  “You can’t stop me.”

  I tried to keep my voice steady, despite feeling torn apart. I was screaming inside my own head, but in two distinct voices. One was devastated by what was about to happen, while the other howled for blood. “I guess it’s time for us to find out one way or the other.”

  Sheila charged me, her power flaring up.

  We’d done this dance before and I knew how it usually played out. Mind you, that was before I’d put on a hundred pounds of supernatural muscle.

  I braced myself as the aura of faith slammed into me like a freight train. The power singed my skin, but my healing compensated. It hurt like hell, but the new me was far more resilient than the old. I held my ground and tried to push my way through it. Her power protected her, but if I could get past it, it would take only the barest of efforts to incapacitate her.

  Kill her!

  A wave of fresh rage filled me from deep inside, as if tapped from an unknown wellspring. Despite the white magic around me, all I saw was red. The small part of my mind still thinking logically shouted out a warning. Despite being beaten and absorbed, some of Dr. Death’s ali
en consciousness remained. It was influencing me even now as it probably would forever more.

  But right then, I didn’t particularly care.

  With a snarl, I pushed forward, deeper into the aura even as my skin fried right off my body, only to regrow with every step. Another few feet and I could end this before it even...

  It was arrogant of me to think it would be so easy. Sheila raised her sword and her eyes glowed white as she added its latent power to her own, sending me flying back aflame.

  I’d thought something like this might happen, though, so I’d planned ahead and purposely kept myself between her and her target.

  The downside, for Tom at least, was that I slammed right into him. But at least Sheila wasn’t going to get a free swing before I could get back to my feet.

  “You can’t win this,” she said, approaching.

  “That the best you got?” I asked. “If so, then you’re dead wrong.”

  Big words for someone whose epidermis currently looked like an order of extra crispy KFC, but my dander was up and there was no way I was showing either fear or doubt.

  “Get off me, asshole!” Tom cried out.

  “Oh, shut up.” I stood and considered my options. If we kept playing this game the same way, she was right. I was already nearly running on empty. I couldn’t keep this up forever. And even if she didn’t choose to outlast me, all she had to do was sidestep and change my trajectory.

  I needed a new plan, but what?

  “Stand aside. I won’t warn you again.” I saw the same resolution in her eyes as I felt in my own. “I won’t let this world fall to darkness.”

  “One innocent life for many, eh? You can’t really believe there isn’t another way.”

  “I’m sorry, but there isn’t.”

  With that, the words were finished and we rushed each other again. This time, however, I didn’t just stand there pushing against the tide. No, that was a losing strategy.

  Instead, I brought my strength and speed to bear, trusting in my healing to keep me in one piece as I swung a clawed hand at her. She parried expertly, if just barely in time, and sparks flew as my talons glanced off the blade of her sword. I hadn’t won by any stretch, but my attack had put her on the defensive, keeping her from focusing enough to channel more power through her weapon. I needed to keep it up. As deft as she was in the art of fighting, her skills couldn’t entirely compensate for my speed and strength.