The Tome of Bill (Book 8): The Last Coven

by Rick Gualtieri

  Christy turned toward me, wide-eyed, but I ignored her. I was on a roll.

  Regardless, it didn’t make sense to do this stupidly. I glanced around, taking stock of all the witches and wizards I could see, ready to dodge at a moment’s notice. I wasn’t an idiot. A pissed off magic user was a sloppy magic user, but that didn’t mean they wouldn't do what they did best – fire off Disintegrate spells as fast as they could say them. “Not only that, though...”

  “I am warning you, vampire.”

  “But your best bud Kala isn’t only a vampire; she’s the first...”

  I saw the shot coming. For all their power, it seemed mages had to charge up a bit for their more lethal spells in a way that would have made any character on Dragonball Z proud.

  A wizard on the side closest me had apparently heard enough. He let fly with a bolt of red-hot magic that effortlessly passed through the purple construct, but I’d seen him before he shot his load. I sidestepped just in time for it to hit the ground where my feet had been a second earlier, leaving a nasty scorch mark.

  I’d correctly guessed he would be conservative in his aim. There were too many in this force bubble, too closely packed. Had we all been vamps, surely a shooting gallery would have been declared, but we had a coven of witches with us and, traitors or not, the Magi had never struck me as the kind to wantonly execute their own kind.

  “Gerald!” Agnes shouted. “That will be enough. You have not been given permission to...”

  “He dared profane the White,” a witch on the other side protested.

  More chimed in, mostly in favor of melting me into goo despite Agnes ordering them to stand down. Uh oh. I’d forgotten that Magi covens weren’t like vamp covens. The master, or mentor, didn’t have absolute control. Hell, Christy was living proof of that.

  I took a quick look amongst my own group. They likewise appeared to be coming to a similar conclusion. Agnes seemed a bit of a bitch, but she was apparently a bitch who wanted to capture us alive. The rest, not so much.

  “Good job as usual,” Sally said, adopting a defensive stance.

  I glanced back at Grulg, but he seemed to be at a loss. For once, he was the neutral party. Go figure.

  “Everyone get close to us,” Christy said as more angry red glows rose up in the peanut gallery.

  “I think not, witch,” Gan replied. “Your strategy is shortsighted.”

  “Fine, you’re on your own,” Christy stated without looking her way.

  “That is enough!” Agnes roared, trying to regain control. In response, the dome around us began to shimmer. She was apparently the architect of this particular spell.

  I was debating between Christy and Gan while this happened. Not personally, mind you. That was an easy choice in any state of mind. But Gan had a point regarding defense. The witches, Sheila, and Tom would do best collectively fending off spells. Gan, Sally, and I, however, would be better served using our speed and agility.

  With Gan around, things were bound to get bloody fast, but right then, I was having a hard time thinking of reasons to ask her to hold back.

  “Be ready, my love,” she said, as if picking up my thoughts. Eww, creepy.

  “Stop!”

  The voice carried with it the unmistakable cadence of command, and all eyes on the would-be battlefield turned Sheila’s way.

  The bulk of her powers might have been in the shitter for the time being, but she still managed to convey a commanding presence. A part of me wondered if it was one of her Icon powers or just her.

  She placed her sheathed sword on the ground and stepped to the forefront of our group, her hands raised. “There’s no need for this.”

  “Get back here,” Kelly warned, but Sheila paid her no heed.

  “We are not here to wage war against the Magi,” she said, her tone authoritative yet placating enough to not be aggressive. “Nor are we here on behalf of the vampire nation.”

  “Who are you?” Agnes asked.

  She didn’t know? First me and now Sheila. Either this chick was out of the loop or we just weren’t as cool as we thought. Still, perhaps that was a good thing – far too many of the Magi had already tasted the kill the Icon Kool Aid.

  Now, to just hope Sheila didn’t ruin it by introducing herself.

  “These are my friends,” she replied, keeping it nice and neutral. Smart.

  “Your name, child?”

  Before Sheila could answer, one of the other mages ratcheted it back up to DEFCON 2. “She’s a thrall. Don’t listen to her!”

  A beam of pale blue light lanced out before Agnes could reassert control. Sheila’s aura flared up in response to it, or tried to.

  Shit!

  For a moment, a weak glow surrounded her, but it was nothing compared to the spell. It plowed through her defenses, lifted her from her feet, and sent her careening backward across the dirt.

  I was by her side in a split second, kneeling and swearing to myself that if she wasn’t okay, there were going to be a lot of dead mages littering the woods by the end of the day.

  She coughed and blinked her eyes – stunned but still alive. These mages might be thralls to Calibra in their own right, but they still had their basic sense of morality about them regarding humans.

  “Did you see that?”

  “She glowed white.”

  “Dear goddess, it’s the Icon!”

  Or at least they did a second earlier.

  I looked down. “Can you run?”

  It was a stupid question because, right then, she couldn’t even speak.

  Unfortunately, running was probably out of the option at that point. All around us, angry red glows of magic began to sprout up.

  WIZARD SORTING

  This was starting to turn into a shit’s creek without a paddle scenario.

  Agnes’s coven outnumbered Christy’s by at least three to one, and there was no telling how many more mages were waiting to come rushing to their aid. Then there was Grulg and his band of abominable apes. There were about half a dozen Sasquatches in sight, but if this was the force that Turd had previously commanded, there could be hundreds more lurking about. Sure, we weren’t at war with them anymore, technically, at least. But we were in their turf. Any of them could easily use that as an excuse, especially in the cause of aiding their new allies.

  Despite Agnes stupidly thinking Tom was a glamoured-up me and Christy and her witches still having a pass against lethal force, my main concern was Sheila. With her full faculties in place, she was as close to magic-proof as it got. I could only hope that blood concoction wore off soon. Until it did, though, she needed help, whether she wanted it or not.

  “Stay with Tom,” I shouted to Sally.

  She raised an eyebrow but stepped over to him anyway.

  I grabbed Sheila and hoisted her over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Her power tingled uncomfortably against my skin, but it was still easily ignored – not much more than being zapped with a joy buzzer.

  Sally shrugged, then decked Tom square in the face ... catching him the same way as he fell forward. Not quite what I had in mind for her to do, but any port in a storm.

  And a storm it was because, at that moment, the bulk of the mages cut loose.

  * * *

  I jumped to my left just as a smoking crater opened up where Sheila had been lying a second earlier. Another nearly took my toes off before I sidestepped.

  The mages were playing it safe, aiming low. But now they knew the prize I held in my arms. I had a feeling their restraint wouldn’t last long.

  Fuck! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blast coming at me. I turned too late, my only option to put my body between Sheila and harm’s way. I braced myself for the feeling of a foot-wide hole being arc-welded through my chest, but at the last moment, the blast was deflected by a purple wall of energy.

  I turned to find Veronica and Kelly close by, having worked it in the nick of time.

  “You’re welcome,” Kelly said with a grin before concent
rating on fending off more of those blue bursts.

  Enough of this shit. Those red beams of energy might be easy to see coming, but this game of bobbing and weaving wasn’t one I could win in the long term, especially not carrying cargo that was starting to snap out of it.

  “Put me down,” she ordered.

  “Sorry, princess, not in your condition.”

  “I’m fine,” she protested, which I dutifully ignored as I leapt up and over two other blasts coming my way.

  I’d definitely had enough of this shit. I dug my free hand into my pants pocket and ... remembered I’d left the vial of blood in my coat. The same one I’d promptly discarded the second I got here. Fuck my life!

  Where was Gan when I needed her?

  Just then, a cry of pain rose up from amongst the ranks of the mages, quickly turning to a gurgle before falling silent again. Guess that answered that question.

  Now for...

  I spotted Sally still carrying Tom, who was very much awake, by the way. She’d attempted to retreat into the forest, but two Sasquatches had stepped in front to bar her way. Damnit!

  They weren’t hurting us ... yet, but they certainly weren’t helping either. Not good, especially since... Fuck!

  “Sally, look out!”

  Tom saw it coming, too, from over her shoulder, because he started yelling at the same time. One of the mages had seemingly remembered that the Freewill was in the battle as well and he was nearly as tempting a target as the Icon.

  Sally spun around, but rather than a look of panic on her face, I saw her grin for a split second before diving to the side with my roommate.

  What the...?

  Confusion instantly turned to understanding as the lance of red-hot power slammed into the two Feet instead, gouging chunks of flesh out of their abdomens and setting them instantly ablaze. Shit-stained fur was apparently flammable. Who’d a guessed?

  A primal roar of anger echoed across the clearing, momentarily causing the blasts flying back and forth to cease. It was Grulg, I think anyway, and he did not sound like a happy camper.

  I caught momentary sight of Agnes in the chaos and actually felt some pity. The look on her face said that things had spiraled out of her control. I didn’t feel too sorry for her, but I got the sense that whatever she’d meant to accomplish this day, this wasn’t it.

  Alas, I didn’t have much time to commiserate because the mages recovered quickly. More screams rose up from their ranks, probably Gan’s handiwork. Music to my ears at that moment.

  Now to see if Sally’s ploy had any effect on...

  “Uh, Bill...” Sheila called from over my shoulder just as I felt a slight tremor beneath my feet.

  I turned my head in time to see the Feet charging into the fray.

  Yes!

  Or make that no. Grulg came straight at me, moving disturbingly fast for something so big. Crap!

  He roared again, deafeningly loud in such close quarters.

  I shouted out, “It was them!” but he didn’t seem to be in a listening mood, so I decided that getting the fuck out of the way was the safer option.

  Only I didn’t.

  From out of nowhere, that rage in me flared up again. With it came an overwhelming urge to throw Sheila down in Grulg’s path, to watch him trample her and be done with it.

  Wherever that feeling had come from – and I had a pretty good idea where – it caused me to hesitate, rooting me to the spot long enough to catch a backhand fist that nearly spun my head around. The next thing I knew, we were both airborne. I had just enough sense left to try to spin my body so as to shield hers from the impact, but then I slammed headfirst into something harder than my skull and a sensation of nothingness washed over me.

  * * *

  “C’mon. Get up,” a voice – female – said from somewhere outside of the peaceful darkness I was enjoying.

  Fucking bitch!

  The stab of anger from deep inside woke me up far more than the nudging from whoever was shaking my shoulder.

  “Let’s go. He didn’t hit you that hard.”

  For a moment, I wanted to lash out, but I managed to hold myself in check – easy to do since my limbs felt like they’d been broken, set badly, then broken again. “I beg to differ,” I croaked weakly, daring to crack my eyes open. Thankfully, the anger retreated as consciousness took hold.

  Sally was staring down at me, her face smudged with dirt but otherwise looking no worse for wear. That figured. If there was a true survivor among my friends, it was her.

  “Um, she’s not looking too hot,” Tom said from somewhere close by, worry clouding his voice.

  I raised a hand and Sally dragged me back to my feet. I was a bit wobbly but trusted in my vampire constitution to take care of that in due order.

  My eyes easily cut through the gloom of the forest to find Tom, kneeling down over ... oh no!

  I pushed past Sally to where Sheila lay on a bed of moss. One of her arms was bent at a bad angle, and there was a smudge of fresh blood at the corner of her mouth.

  Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be out cold. Or at least I hoped she was. “Is she...”

  “She’s alive,” Sally said, “but banged up badly.”

  “Grulg apologize.”

  I came close to shitting my pants at the sound, spun to find him standing right behind me, and came a lot closer.

  Though he was more than two feet taller and looked strong enough to bench press a truck, I somehow managed to collect myself and not back down. I searched deep inside of me for that anger, for whatever it was that Dr. Death kept feeding me, and found it ... dragged it kicking and screaming to the surface. “What the fuck did you do?”

  Grulg actually backed up a step at the sound of my voice, again deeper than I usually spoke.

  “I swear to whatever gods are out there, if you hurt her...”

  “He didn’t.” Sally grabbed my arm, and it was all I could do to not backhand her in the mouth. I only paused when I looked down and saw that my claws had extended. “Listen to me. He saved her. He saved us.”

  It took a moment for her words to register, so transfixed was I by my body’s defenses seeming to have taken on a mind of their own.

  “Huh? What? Then why is she lying there like...”

  “Silver Eyes said to be strong. Said to be hard to hurt. Grulg not know.”

  “He explained it to me while you were out,” Sally said. “His hands were tied with the witches. They’re allies now. At some point, while we were playing footsie back in Brooklyn, the Magi took a side, declared war on us. He couldn’t blatantly help us with them there. But once the Feet were forced to intervene...”

  “After you almost got us blasted,” Tom complained.

  “You whine like a bitch,” she replied before addressing me again. “Anyway, Grulg had to act the part. He knocked your ass out while I ran with the meatsack here. That’s when he grabbed you both and followed under the pretense of chasing us down.”

  I sat next to Sheila and took hold of her hand. I brushed a strand of hair out of her face, then looked up at Grulg. “Is that what happened?”

  He nodded.

  “Why?”

  “Grulg, Freewill T’lunta, and mate all honorable. War with T’lunta over. Grulg remembers what you do for him. Debt of honor must be paid.”

  I offered up a weak smile. “While still appearing to toe the party line?”

  He grinned down at me. “Grulg honorable warrior, but Grulg not dumb.”

  BAKED BEANS AND BROWNSTONES

  When it came to tending injuries, Tom and I were next to useless. Hell, I could barely put a Band-Aid on straight.

  I could follow directions, though. My roommate and I fashioned a crude litter out of branches and vines ... with maybe a bit of help from Grulg. While we did this, Sally did her best to help Sheila.

  “You know how to splint an arm?” I asked.

  “James’s suggestion,” she replied. “He said I knew how to break them, but maybe it
wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn how to set them, too. So I practiced on some of the Pandora vamps while I was out there.”

  “I bet they really appreciated that.”

  She smiled in a sweet yet somehow creepy way. “One of the beauties of being a coven master is not needing to give a shit. And with some of them, I gave a shit far less than with others.”

  While we worked, Grulg used the trees to communicate with some of his more trustworthy troops. Hopefully, there were a few other Feet with his sense of honor because, if not, we were gonna find ourselves bent over facing the wrong end of a magical wand.

  Speaking of which, he gave the bad news. Christy and her coven had been captured after we’d departed the fray. However, from the sound of things, they’d surrendered and no further harm was done to them. Again, I mentally added the caveat for now. Whatever morality Agnes had, I knew for a fact Calibra didn’t share it.

  That left Gan. Unsurprisingly, her whereabouts were unknown. I didn’t think for a second she’d gotten vaporized. Not her. She was the very definition of a bad penny that kept showing up. It was only a matter of time before she sniffed us out, probably right when our asses needed saving again, which really wasn’t something I should have been sneering at.

  There was one upside. Grulg felt really bad about what happened to Sheila. He promised to do what he could to protect her until she was back on her feet. Another of those debts of honor, I supposed. However, that was more than welcome. She needed all the help she could get in her current state.

  “How is she?” I asked, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.

  “Broken arm. I’d say several broken ribs too, but that’s about the extent of my expertise.”

  “If you had to take a guess,” I prodded.

  Sally stood up and put a hand on my shoulder, the cold gleam instantly fading from her eyes. “Her powers need to come back, or we need to find a hospital right away.”

  “What is hospital?” Grulg asked.

  I was tempted to round on the big ape, but held myself in check. This wasn’t his fault. He’d helped us when he didn’t have any reason to. “It’s where sick humans go to get better, Grulg. Sadly, I don’t think we have much chance of finding one way out in the woods.”