Jasper saw me approaching and smiled. “Do you honestly believe you can stop us?”
“I’m the Freewill, Assper. What do you think?”
“The Freewill?” he scoffed. “The old ways are dead. All I see before me are the last few sacrifices needed to usher in a new era.”
“As do I.” Gan stepped to his side, her eyes glittering with a combination of greed and madness – in short, her usual look. Then, almost faster than my eyes could follow, she lashed out with her claws and erased Jasper’s throat in a spray of blood. “But my beloved is not one of them.”
Vampires can heal from a lot, but she’d nearly decapitated him with a single blow. Another quick swing from her and the nearly part of that equation was erased, along with Jasper as his body flared up in white-hot flames, giving to this place another life that had been denied it all those years back.
A part of me wasn’t entirely surprised. She was Gan, after all. Every time I’d gotten comfortable thinking I knew the answers to her crazy-ass mind, she’d changed the questions. Why should now be any different?
“How long have you been planning this?” I asked, making sure I stood between her and Sheila. Gan was fast, far faster than me. But if I kept my eyes on her, I might be able to intercept her if she tried anything.
“Since the day destiny chose to spare me.”
Okay, that was a bit longer than I would’ve guessed. “And Sheila, all of this?”
“A mere catalyst spurring me to action, albeit earlier than I originally planned. Nevertheless, I knew her involvement would draw yours, which in turn would provide the missing pieces I required.”
“But how?”
“The Shining One is not the only creature upon this world to possess the conviction of faith.” She took a step forward. “I did tell you, beloved, did I not, that fate continues to smile upon you?”
I readied myself, praying that Sheila was in place and hadn’t changed her mind. “You want her to be the thirteenth, don’t you?”
“I told her I would return for you one day. Did you think me a liar?”
“You do realize we broke up, right?”
She shrugged. “Then her fate should be all the more easy for you to accept.”
Goddamn, that was cold. The light in the cavern shifted again, growing darker, more ominous. I dared a glance up. The energy gathered at the ceiling was starting to swirl, forming a diabolical funnel cloud of sorts. I had a feeling that when it touched down, the effect would be ... not good.
“So you tricked us?” I asked, trying to stall her. Gan was scary smart, but she had a bit of a blind spot where I was concerned. I was hoping I could get her to monologue long enough for us to stuff her plans down her throat with an extra helping of boot. “Tricked us into coming down here so you could get Christy’s spell?”
To my surprise, Gan actually laughed. “Of course not, beloved. I have known the intricacies of the witch’s ritual for some time.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Hardly. As I told you, I’ve kept close tabs on you and your life, including the pieces of it you may have discarded along the way.”
My eyes opened wide as realization hit. “Hold on. You didn’t go dumpster diving for my old phone, did you?”
“Not personally,” she replied, “but in essence. The data contained within was most enlightening. I especially enjoyed the video you surreptitiously captured of your whore being wed to the Alma leader.” Oh, yeah. Almost forgot about that. “More importantly, my servants have long had access to the photos you took of this place, including the ritual once inscribed upon the walls.”
Oh boy. I could only imagine what blackmail dirt she had on me from the last laptop I tossed out.
“Where Komak and his pet witch lacked the time to properly distill it,” she continued, “the mages in my employ have had years to do so and more.”
And more? That didn’t sound good. “Then why lure us all down here?”
“The others are inconsequential, the fodder of fate. But you wouldn’t have come if they hadn’t.”
I narrowed my eyes and pointed to my fangs. “So you wanted this to happen to me?”
Gan broke eye contact for a moment, seemingly embarrassed. “Alas, that was ... not anticipated. All I knew was that I wanted you by my side as we embraced a new beginning.”
I was tempted to call her out. If this wasn’t her doing, then whose was it? But before I could do so, Sheila cried out from somewhere behind me.
“Bill! It’s almost here.”
I let a fanged smile play out across my lips as I continued to face Gan. “Yeah? Well embrace this. DO IT!”
I expected to see any of a dozen different emotions cross Gan’s face: shock, anger, batshit crazy, or some combination. But the fact that she merely smiled chilled me to the bone.
“Yes,” she replied in a bare whisper, “do it.”
What?
Her words from mere moments ago played out in my head. The mages in my employ have had years to do so and more.
Was it possible she’d prepared for this, too?
And just like that, it made sense why she hadn’t killed that mage earlier, the one who had Tom. It wasn’t mercy. It was because the fucker was working for her, too, setting up the opportunity to hand Tom over to me so we could carry out the ... plan Gan had suggested in the first place. She wanted him out there in The Source.
“No, wait!” I spun, quick as my vampire reflexes would allow, but it wasn’t nearly fast enough to make a difference.
I could only watch as Sheila – Tom’s shade by her side – tossed the doll into the air and then sliced it neatly in half with her sword.
The two ends fell into the magic goop pooled at her feet just as that sickly green funnel of power descended upon her.
For a moment, I lost sight of her amidst the swirling torrent of energy, and then it all exploded in an eruption of light, sound, and fury.
BODY OF EVIDENCE
The shockwave from the explosion hit me like a truck, sending me tumbling end over end like a ragdoll all the way back to the shoreline.
I’d forgotten what being cock-punched by magic was like. Needless to say, I hadn’t missed it much.
Dazed and bruised to all hell, I skidded to a halt, enjoying the sensation of my skin sheering off against the rocky ground. Thankfully I landed in a position conducive to see what was going on. Back in the center of The Source, a rising dome of swirling energy was forming – myriad colors fighting for dominance: orange, white, and green, like the Irish flag trying to teabag itself.
Bracing myself best as I could, I waited for the primal scream of souls being dragged back to whatever hell they’d been unleashed from – the cry that would tell me we’d once again closed the door, hopefully for good this time.
Sadly, where I’d been caught unprepared by the blowback, I saw that others were not. The mages who’d created those thirteen portals somehow continued to stand their ground against the cascade of power. Worse, they weren’t finished yet.
The fuck?!
As they gesticulated, sickly green energy flared forth from each of the portals – their color matching whatever was trying to break through to our world – and struck the swirling center.
A scream rose up, but it wasn’t that of spirits being dragged away. It came from inside that vortex of energy. There was no fury or defiance to it. It was a cry of terror, of pain, and it was coming from Sheila.
“No!”
“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Sadly, my voice was lost as booming laughter echoed from above, once more shaking the very foundation of this cavern.
There was only one chance. I focused on the maelstrom of power, the cry of pain that continued to issue forth. I needed to stop this. I needed to save her but couldn’t as myself. I could only do that by letting the beast inside of me out to play. “Come on, Dr. Death! Get your ass out here and fuck these guys up.”
Reaching deep down inside, I tried to remember the
rage, the anger, the pain, all the things that used to summon my own personal demon forth from deep inside my head.
If I gave him control, I could do this. I could get in there, break through whatever was happening.
I could still win this.
Any minute now.
Yep, any time...
But nothing happened. No red haze of rage. No transformation. Hell, there wasn’t even a hiccup of mocking laughter from inside my head.
Fine! Be that way, asshole. If I have to take both of us out to save her, I will.
Shaking my head to clear it, I pushed myself to my feet. But before I could take more than a step or two, the maelstrom flared up and a tidal wave of orange goo poured forth from the center, racing out in all directions as if someone had turned on a giant spigot connected to Hell itself.
The Source had been opened wide again.
♦ ♦ ♦
The wave of primal power raced toward the shore at tsunami speed. I was certain I was about to be bowled over by a King Kong-sized money shot, but then it simply stopped – freezing in place mere feet from its former edge.
For a moment, I wondered whether Christy had cast her time spell again. If so, maybe we could...
The orange goo – in reality, a gateway to worlds beyond our own – held its place for a moment longer and then it began to recede, even faster than it had come pouring out.
Okay, that’s new.
It was pulled back into that swirling dome of energy as if someone had activated a Mega Maid-sized vacuum cleaner.
Yes!
She was doing it. Sheila was fighting back. More importantly, she was winning.
The screams that had been coming from that awesome display of power fell quiet against the thunderous crackle of raw energy, and a moment later, the center of it all flared out in thirteen different directions, blasting toward those still-opened portals.
Whatever the mages had been trying to do, Sheila had somehow found a way to turn it around and ram it down their throats.
Yeah! Fry, you fuckers!
The energy struck each of the portals simultaneously, filling them with explosive orange radiance. There came a crackle of thunder from each and then they winked out, leaving nothing but acrid smoke behind.
The crackling dome of power at the center of The Source was next, sizzling for a moment and then likewise reversing itself. The funnel of otherworldly energy blasted back up toward the ceiling, leaving a dense cloud of dust and debris behind.
The energy fed back into whatever had been coalescing along the ceiling, causing it to collapse in on itself until it was little more than a few crackles of magical power still arcing along the roof of the cavern.
Thank Goodness.
I dared a glance at the nearest of those black-robed assholes, expecting to see confusion etched onto their stupid faces. But instead I saw the opposite. Where fear seemed to reign supreme for nearly everyone else in sight, expressions of rapturous joy beamed from Gan’s mages.
The fuck? Had these guys suddenly turned stupid or something?
They’d lost. The Source had been destroyed again. Everything, even that small puddle that had formed in the center, had dried up. Gone was that reddish glow that had suffused the cave.
It was over.
Wasn’t it?
I turned toward the center to see if I could catch sight of Sheila, but it was still too obscured by dust and smoke. Whatever had just happened was weird as fuck, but I had faith that she’d...
“What have you done, you monster?!”
I spun automatically at the sound of Christy’s voice. She was clambering to her feet about fifteen yards away. Kelly and Liz were both on the ground nearby, dazed but alive – not exactly a win in that latter case.
For one terrible moment, I thought she was yelling at me, but then I realized she was directing her fury at a group of black-robed wizards, Herschel among them.
He and the wizards who’d been protecting him stood on shaky legs, looking winded. But the expression on his face was still one of gleeful defiance. “I’ve done what a heretic like you was too weak to do.”
He raised his arms and began to chant. Idiot. The Source was gone. Magic was once again as dead as...
Christy held out her hands and a beam of angry red energy shot out, blowing a hole right through Herschel’s chest.
Jesus fucking Christ!
Yeah, she’d just murdered the shit out of him. But how the hell was that even possible?
“Do you find it as marvelous as I, my love?”
I did a one-eighty and found Gan standing upon a small rise maybe thirty feet away from me. Four black-robed and hooded witches stood around her, facing outward as if to ward off a potential attack.
That itself wasn’t promising. However, what caused my balls to truly shrivel was the sight of her eyes – golden orbs of yellow malevolence staring back at me.
No way.
Not really wanting to know the answer, I raised a hand to the side of my neck again. Sure enough, there was nary a peep from my pulse. “How?”
She grinned, displaying her fangs. “Is it not obvious?”
Had there been a desk nearby, I’d have gladly beaten my head against it. “No, not really.”
“One portal to beyond, one Source,” she explained. “Powerful yet vulnerable.”
“And now gone forever.”
“Yes, beloved.” She continued to smile. “Sacrificed so that thirteen others, dotting this world, could be birthed. Combined, they shall open the veil in ways not seen since the dawn of man. It shall be glorious to behold.”
Glorious was really not the word that came to mind. It was trumped ever so slightly by pterodactyl-shit crazy. “How the fuck is that possible?”
“It is not,” she replied as the black-robed figures standing around her raised their hands into the air. “At least not without ... assistance.”
Behind me, I could hear more blasts of energy being unleashed, could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up from the discharge of magic. Christy, and hopefully others, were engaging the true traitors among their number, helpfully identified by their poor choice in fashion.
I should’ve turned and helped her, but somehow I couldn’t. Before me was Patient Zero of this cancerous outgrowth. Everyone else was merely a pawn.
Gan held out a hand toward me. “Join me.”
It was straight out of supervillain 101. “Join you? You’re all kinds of...”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Sadly, my litany of colorful words describing what a psychotic shit-burrito she was were drowned out as that creepy-ass psychic laughter started up again, louder than ever.
“THE OFFERING IS ACCEPTED. RECEIVE MY BLESSING SO THE WORLD MAY TREMBLE ONCE MORE.”
Call me crazy, but that didn’t sound particularly promising.
Gan’s smile widened as she continued to hold out her hand toward me. The four mages around her looked up as thunder sounded from above. I followed their gaze to find that crackle of green energy, still playing across the roof of the cave, beginning to once again grow in intensity.
Oh for Christ’s sake, what now?
“Tremble at this, asshole!”
At the sound of the familiar voice, Gan’s smile faltered and her face took on that rarest of expressions for her – surprise.
I spun, praying that my ears weren’t deceiving me.
The smoke had finally cleared from the center of The Source, giving way to the white glow of faith.
Sheila was alive, and she looked pissed.
TIT FOR TAT
“Impossible,” Gan said, her voice betraying both surprise and fear, although far more of the former.
Yet it was true. Guess it was a good day for the impossible.
Sheila began heading our way just as that sliver of power above us flared up. That was all the incentive I needed. It was time to kick some ass or die trying – even if that second one was more likely.
I didn’t see a
ny sign of Tom but that, along with my grief, would need to wait until we’d finished what the crazy bitch with a SpongeBob fetish had started.
Gan, however, was apparently through playing games as well. “Kill the Shining One,” she ordered. “Her kind are obsolete in this glorious new age.”
Too bad for her the classics didn’t die that easily.
Sadly, intent wasn’t the same as reality. I quickly realized that neither of us were going to make it there in time. With another rumble that left me staggering off balance, the power above us coalesced into a crackle of green lightning which arced across the ceiling until it was right above where Gan stood triumphant.
Or where she had been standing triumphant?
One of the hooded mages guarding her raced up and tackled her from behind, sending the teenaged hellion stumbling forward.
Her attacker tossed her robe to the side, revealing ... Sally’s smiling face.
Holy shit!
Guess she’d finally caught that second wind. “Way to go!”
She took a moment to toss me a wink before raising the gun I’d left with her and taking aim.
The other three mages turned toward her, already gathering power. They were too late, though, Sally was already in a shooter’s stance.
“I’ve been waiting for this a long time, bitch.”
As the words left her mouth, three things happened in near synchronicity, and it was as if time slowed down just long enough to mark the occasion.
Sally pulled the trigger just as the mages unleashed beams of red death at her.
The spells struck their mark in the same moment the green lightning lanced down and engulfed her in an embrace of fire.
Oh, God, no!
♦ ♦ ♦
There came a hum of power as if an electrical transformer had just blown, followed by a blinding flash and the awful smell of burnt flesh and hair.
Sally didn’t even have time to scream as the power consumed her whole.
Strange Days (Bill of the Dead Book 1) Page 30