by Mark Taylor
“No fair,” Excalibur called back as they dropped to the ground. “My turn.” Excalibur faced the two that remained, one fireball for each. They left her hands and careened into the mongers, as they howled in pain and started to fall from the sky.
“We should make more haste,” Dina called. She, Lady, and Mary had started a trot. “They’ll be more coming.”
Excalibur watched them for a moment from high in the air with a smile before taking off in the same direction, dropping slowly toward the ground as she did.
As they crossed the fields more mongers appeared in the distance. Still too far away to see how many. “There,” Excalibur called to the group. “That’s roughly were we came in.”
The three on the ground stopped, and Dina beckoned for Excalibur to join them.
“There’re mongers coming,” she said as she landed.
“That’s fine. They won’t be there once we break out of the curse on our minds,” Dina said. “Come, we need to join hands.” She looked at Mary. “You can commune, yes?”
“Yes,” she replied. “A little – but I never see anyone in there.”
“You will this time. Now concentrate.”
Mary closed her eyes and brought the ethereal forward, just as Lady had taught her in London. The warmth of the other three was immediately overwhelming. She felt Excalibur so close.
Come Mary.
Dina’s voice. It was everywhere. It was inside her. She felt Dina’s grasp around her hand, but nothing was there. It pulled her gently onwards. Deeper into the ethereal she slipped. There was Lady too. And strongest of all was Excalibur. Their connection was so strong.
We need to be free of Purgatory. Come.
Mary let herself be guided forward, aware of everything around her, and an all-encompassing nothing. Dina’s hold was calming, allaying her fear.
But something wasn’t right. Mary could feel a nagging in the back of her consciousness. Something that felt…wrong. Out of place.
“Dina.” Mary spoke into the nothing. “Can you hear me?”
Of course. You don’t need words.
Right, Mary thought, there is something here – I can feel it. It does not feel like it should be here.
I feel it too.
And then it was stronger.
Evil came.
Oh, no.
Come, Mary, quicker. We are close to the other side. He can sense us leaving the grip.
Mary pushed herself forward, running in the nothing. She could feel Lady struggling too, and Excalibur. They were all threatened. Mary crashed to the grass as she opened her eyes, Lady, Excalibur, and Dina still standing, encircling her. The door was behind Excalibur. Before any of them could react, Mary was back to her feet.
“Come on,” she said, rushing for the door, and taking Excalibur’s hand as she did. “He’s coming.”
All of them snapped back to their thoughts and the four of them reached the door at the same time. Mary threw it open to reveal the corridor beyond. “Yes!” she yelped. “Let’s go.”
Mary led the women into the corridor, the door closing by itself.
“This way.” Mary led the way back that Sebastian had shown them.
As the four of them turned the first corner, with Dina at Mary’s side, they drew quickly to a halt when the corridor was blocked by the Devil himself.
“Well,” he drawled. “Very clever. But you must have known I would sense you leaving. Feel you. You shouldn’t have come. Excalibur has led you all to exactly where I desired you to be. Thank you.” He grinned and nodded appreciatively to Excalibur.
Excalibur took Mary’s arm. “No. No more lies. I told you that I wouldn’t betray Mary or the returners for you. Not even for Dina.” She turned back to Mary, Dina, and Lady. “He lies. We fight. We can still win this.”
“That is both untrue and unwise. What, did you think I let her escape?” The Devil’s grin widened, and he raised his cane to his chin.
“It’s okay,” Dina whispered. “I know what He is like. We flee. Nothing has changed.”
Excalibur nodded slightly, still facing the three of them. She watched as the corridor from where they had come darkened in the shadow of the vampyr that gathered. “We have company behind.”
“And in front.” Lady nodded toward the Devil.
Excalibur turned. Mongers gathered behind him.
“You see. You cannot win. I think it is time for re-negotiations. Lady. I believe that with all the failures of this little endeavor of yours, the favor you repaid to me in taking a coven to Mary Anson was used with treachery, and therefore payment revoked. You still owe me, Lady. Also, you owe me two souls. The returners will be sufficient. Their suffering will be…outlandish, of course. And you, Mary. I believe you failed to provide me with payment agreed. I will keep you, I think. Sound fair?”
“He’s right,” Mary whispered. “We’re not all getting out of this. You need to go.”
Dina squeezed her hand gently. “You should know better than that. Besides. You think we can trust him to keep his word?” She turned her head slightly to the side, to Lady. “Think you can hold them back?”
Lady smiled.
***
Excalibur balled fire in her hands and charged forward towards the Devil, who raised his hands into the air, the mongers behind him flying forward in the corridor. As soon as she was moving Lady turned, clapping a sonic boom toward the vampyr horde. Dina took after Excalibur, bringing her electricity to her hands. Mary hesitated for a second, she hadn’t expected the sisters to attack full on without further word. She clenched her fingers to a fist and then released them flat, fireballs appearing in the palms, and growing on her will. She flung them down the corridor after Lady’s boom – the two of them crashing into the vampyr, as they faltered, unsteady on their feet.
“I don’t think this is going to hold them,” Lady said.
“It’s got to.” Mary brought more fire, and the two of them started backing along the corridor towards Dina – trying to stop the horde from gaining on them.
Excalibur dropped two of the mongers to the ground as Dina’s blue-balled electricity streaked by her and took two more. “There’s too many,” Excalibur called over the eruption of noise in the closed corridor.
“Keep going.” Dina sounded steadfast. Sure.
More electricity flew before Excalibur could throw more fire, but as she did, she caught glance of the Devil, his hands still raised, a look of abject determination and concentration on his face. More mongers dropped.
But still they came.
Dina dropped three…Excalibur two, but six replaced them, forcing the two of them back in the direction that they had come.
Mary threw flame after flame. It was taking too long to will them large, so she flung what she had at the vampyr horde – but still they got closer. Lady’s booms did little more than slow them, so she reverted to her own fire, streaming from her hands wildly down the corridor, snapping at the approaching vampyr like snakes. But still the two of them backed away.
Lady’s back met Dina’s. They stopped and glanced at each other over the sound of fire, the raw power of electricity, and the screams of the mongers. “This is it,” Lady said.
Dina turned her attention back to the oncoming. “Never give up.”
The four witches stood back to back. Four friends fighting. Four sisters.
And the four of them got closer still.
Excalibur held her fire, took to the air. The mongers were only feet in front of the coven, so Excalibur lunged, punching each monger, being thrown back, falling to the floor, knocking more to the side. She grunted with exhaustion but never ceased. She looked through the wall of darkness that moved forward. Still at the back the Master of Hell stood, fixated. His determined look – his scowl – now changed, a small victory grin had swept over his face.
And from the shadows, amid the very mongers themselves, Sebastian came from the darkness. He drew his head back, baring his teeth, and feasted on the first monge
r, the thing howling in pain and dropped to the floor of the corridor.
Sebastian turned, clawing at the next.
The Devil turned on him, shock in his face. “What are you doing?”
“Something I should have done a long time ago.” Sebastian scowled at him, pushing another monger away to the floor. He grabbed a third, heaving it above his head a tearing it in two.
Excalibur watched Sebastian over the onslaught of mongers, fireballs flaring, punishing the mongers that had gotten too close. He faced down the Devil. “Now’s our chance,” she called to her three sisters.
Mary kicked out at the monger closest to her, sending it sprawling to the floor. “Plan?” she screamed.
“This way.” The distraction had caused the Devil to take his concentration from the four of them and the mongers were unfocussed, unsure of where their battle lay. The Devil was too busy trying to regain control over Sebastian. “Now!”
Dina, exhausted, still fought forwards, side by side with Excalibur, blue electricity firing into the mongers, dropping them as quickly as she could.
Lady drew her fire back into herself and clapped out a boom, knocking those directly in front of her and Mary to the wayside. The two of them followed Dina, the mongers between them and The Devil – and Sebastian – thinning as they dropped, their numbers not replenishing as they fell.
Sebastian and the Devil were locked in a death grip.
Excalibur paused for a second. Watching.
Dina and Mary ran forward to a gap in the fray, able to pass to freedom.
Lady stopped, grabbing Excalibur’s arm. “Come on,” she urged, pulling Excalibur forward.
Excalibur stopped staring at Sebastian, and she snapped her eyes back to Lady. “Right,” she said. But as she moved to follow Dina, Lady’s hand dropped away from her and she took a step backwards. Excalibur reached out for Lady, who looked pained…as she reached out weakly.
Then she slumped down, revealing a monger behind her, glee in whatever it was that formed its face.
Excalibur looked at the blood letting from Lady’s back onto the corridor’s floor. Excalibur sucked in a deep breath, before raising two fireballs and dispatching the remaining mongers in the corridor behind them, screaming. She half flew to Lady’s side and dropped to her knees. “Are you okay? Is it bad?”
“You tell me, sis.” Lady wheezed. She looked up into Excalibur’s eyes, her life draining from her, as Death himself appeared behind Excalibur, beckoning Lady to the gates of white.
Excalibur screamed to the others.
Dina turned, nearly knocking Mary from her feet, and was running back down the corridor before Mary had a chance to react.
Mary glanced at Sebastian, still toiling with the Devil. He was losing, being overwhelmed both physically and mentally.
There wasn’t much time.
She turned and rushed to Dina’s side.
Excalibur had backed away, she had blood on her hands. “This is all wrong,” she muttered. “This can’t happen.”
Dina was muttering a spell. She stopped and held out her hands, one to Mary and one to Excalibur. “We need to work together and we need to work fast. We can hold her together, for now.”
Both Mary and Excalibur took hold of Dina. “Help me pull her consciousness into the ethereal. I can protect her body from there.”
Mary closed her eyes, and prayed for the ethereal. Wished for the nothing. The nausea she had felt before washed over her and the three of them were present – there, but not.
“Help bring Lady.”
It was Excalibur’s disembodied voice.
“Feel her. She is weak.”
Mary could feel her, barely. “What will protect us on the outside?”
“Don’t think of that.”
That was Dina.
“Bring Lady here, and let me work.”
There was pause, as Mary closed her eyes from the blackness of the nothing and wished Lady there, strong and well, and she pushed all thoughts of the Devil and Mongers back.
“She is here. Protect us.”
Mary blinked back to the corridor as she was released from the communion. She looked at Dina, entranced, hunched over Lady’s prone body. Mary could still see her shallow breathing. She looked to Excalibur, also back in her body.
In the few seconds that they were within the ethereal, the Devil had taken Sebastian by the throat – the Devil who seemed so frail, overpowering the leader of all vampyr. He had brought control back over the mongers and now they continued forward.
Mary and Excalibur glanced at each other, and gave a little nod. The two of them brought their fire and fought the mongers.
Excalibur lifted from her feet, only a few inches, but enough to allow her to kick out at the beasts that came.
Mary punched flaming fists into them.
And Sebastian gave a single, resigned look to Excalibur, before clawing at the face of the Devil, causing him at howl in pain, and in a moment of unrestrained hatred and anger, the Devil ripped out the neck of the vampyr, killing him instantly.
Excalibur screamed. “Father!”
Mary continued to fight the incoming mongers, as Excalibur found a new rage inside of her. She lunged forward, flipping a fireball into a monger’s face, before punching further fire into another’s chest, knocking it back, howling in pain.
Mary swung her flaming fists left and right. “They are weakening.”
Excalibur lifted from the floor and looked over the remaining mongers. The Devil had gone, likely wounded badly. She flung another fireball into one of the mongers as they became disoriented without His guidance.
“Now’s our chance.” Dina came from behind them, holding Lady on her shoulder. Lady’s clothing was badly bloodied, and she looked barely conscious. Dina could see the look in Mary’s face. “She will be fine. I have stemmed the flow of blood, but it has taken its toll. We must go now. I too am weak.”
Mary nodded, turning back to the last of the mongers, which now looked in desperation for leadership. She opened her palm and fireball appeared stronger and faster than previously.
She slammed it into the head of the monger.
The four of them skirted around the bodies of the mongers on the floor, as they made their way back to the doorway home.
Excalibur stopped at the body of Sebastian, crouching beside him. She rested her hand on his forehead, and dropped her head in short prayer.
Mary touched her shoulder. “Come, or his sacrifice will be for nothing.”
Excalibur nodded, and stood, the four of them turning the corner of the corridor, and out to the portal.
***
As the four of them crossed the copse, the darkness of the night enveloped them, and a chill cut through the air. Dina had passed Lady to Excalibur, unable to take her weight any longer, and Mary had taken Dina’s own weight as her own.
The four of them reached the gates. “He will be coming, no doubt. And quickly.” Dina was weak. She sounded old, frail.
“You must go,” Mary said. “The three of you. You know, poof.”
“We cannot,” Dina replied. “We cannot leave you here.”
“I can flee. The car is just over there.”
“She’s right.” Excalibur interrupted. “You two need to go. Me and Mary will lead Him away in the night. He won’t assume to follow you – he’ll think we are all together. Do you have the strength?”
Dina nodded weakly. “Just, but I cannot. Not after what you have done to find me.”
“You go.” Excalibur was firm. “The two of you are no use to us in a fight, and I can’t leave Mary alone now, can I?” She flicked a short, sharp smile at Mary. “Here.” She helped Lady onto Dina’s shoulder. “Is she going to be okay?”
“With rest and calm, with the right words, and a touch of magic.”
Excalibur nodded, and the two of them were gone. She looked to Mary. “I say we leave. Now. Quickly.”
Mary turned without answer and the two of them ran to the c
ar, Excalibur taking the wheel.
“That went…well.” Excalibur started the car, and shot a look over to the trees. A single monger was already circling the copse. “Oh, Jesus.” She threw the car into drive and spun the wheels as she accelerated away.
Mary watched the black shadow circling through the back window of the car as they distanced themselves. “I can’t believe this is all happening,” she said quietly. Turning to Excalibur, she rested her hand on her arm. “I’m sorry about Sebastian. Is he really…?”
Excalibur nodded. “Dead? Yes. Dancing with the Devil will do that to you. Still, at least he tried. Which is a first.” She continued to stare at the road ahead, lit only by the headlights of the car as the street lights faded with the town behind them.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“New Mexico.”
Mary squinted out of the windscreen into the darkness. “Why?”
“I know a good chicken place there.”
VI
Crossing the border into New Mexico was easy. The dry brush stretched as far as the eye could see. Mary shielded her face as the morning sun peaked in the sky. “What time is it?” she asked.
“Not noon yet.” Excalibur had one hand on the wheel and the other dangling casually out of the wound down window of the car.
“How long have I been out?”
“A few hours.”
Mary looked over to Excalibur. “Want me to take over for a while?”
“No.”
“You okay?” Mary asked, aware that Excalibur was withdrawn.
“I’ve just been thinking.”
“About?”
“Oh, you know. Everything that has transpired over the last few days. Where we’re at now. How much trouble we’re in. The fact that something tarp-like has been trailing us for the last twenty-seven minutes. How Dina is doing. What…”
“What?” Mary spun around in her seat looking first out of the front of the car and then behind. “Where?”
“You’ll see it in a minute. It’s coming and going.”