Lopez’s harried voice came over the radio.
“I’ve got to dream link to Nadia or Alexis. We’re under attack here!”
Kat swung her head around searching in vain for the source of the assault. She slowed the car and repositioned it behind the lead vehicle.
“Hector, I don’t see anything!”
“Someone was close enough to link and steal the medallions. They got two of them. I think both Nadia and Alexis have been ripped into the S.Q.!”
“Shouldn’t I come help you?”
“No, keep a lookout and keep moving fast!”
Kat verbalized her agreement but her face bore concern. She looked at Alfonso. He’d already unbuckled his seatbelt, pressed the back of his seat all the way down, and managed to wiggle his way backwards.
“What in the hell are you doing?” she asked.
“He told you to stay here. He didn’t say I had to. You and I both know that on his own, he’s got no chance of getting them back alive. I’m going after them. I should be able to connect to the little girl.”
He didn’t wait for her approval, but her grim face showed it. He swung his legs into the backseat, and his torso soon followed.
“Give me your medallion.”
“What?” She cocked her head and stared at him in the rearview mirror.
“Kat, you know we’ll be damn lucky to get all four of us back with only two medallions!”
Careful to keep her attention on the road as she removed her medallion from her neck, she complied and handed it back to him.
- Chapter Twenty Two -
“Exit here!”
Tapusscar didn’t immediately follow the order. The thought of letting the bitch that broke his wrist get away infuriated him.
“Are you crazy?” he asked. “We are almost in striking distance of them.”
“Can’t you see that I just retrieved two medallions?! Pull off!”
In the process of exiting, Tapusscar cut off a burgundy Chevy Tahoe. The driver blasted his horn. The woman in the passenger’s seat sneered while flipping Tapusscar the bird.
The rage inside him burned hotter.
West of the freeway was a strip mall full of chain establishments, including a Jack in the Box, a Dairy Queen, and a Starbucks.
“Pull up over there,” Stanley ordered. He pointed to a parking spot fifty yards from the Starbucks.
“I’ve got to get these medallions back where they belong. Get another car and complete your mission or vendetta, or whatever the hell it is.” He waved his hands in an excited manner.
The little man exited the car and walked around the back headed towards the driver’s door. A dozen thoughts raced through Tapusscar’s mind. The sores on his back had continued to burn and fester. His fractured wrist throbbed uncontrollably.
This little prick thinks he’s going to leave me here?
Tapusscar considered foregoing his revenge of the girl, killing Stanley and taking the retrieved medallions back to the Master. But his anger had blinded him before. Even though he knew others viewed him as an unthinking monster, Tapusscar would not let his rage get the best of him again. He knew his mind sometimes proved under-equipped to sort out details of complex situations, but this one was simple. His task was to eliminate all obstacles to the medallion, retrieve it, and bring it back to the Master. After the slashing his back had taken from Luzveyn’s spiked tail, he wasn’t about to let his Master down again.
Anxious raps thumped on the window beside his left ear.
Tapusscar pried himself out of the car. Stanley stood a few feet away, aiming a Colt .45 pistol at him.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Stanley gloated, “but I’m already a dozen steps ahead of you. You thought you were going to kill me, take the medallions, and get all the credit.”
“No— no, I was not.”
“Don’t bother lying. Kick your gun over there.” He nodded to the deserted expanse behind the Lexus.
The little man appeared nervous, but he’d already cocked his weapon, indicating he was prepared to use it. Tapusscar slowly removed his Russian-made Tokarev from his shoulder holster, placed it on the ground, and slid it with his foot.
“We work for the same Master, my Cro-Magnon friend. I’m not going to kill you.” Stanley kept a watchful eye for witnesses while he positioned Tapusscar with quick, directed motions of his weapon.
“Here’s the deal. After I leave, you’ll want to come after me, but there are no fewer than six major airports in this area: San Diego, Orange County, LAX, Long Beach, Ontario, and Burbank. My luggage is ready-to-go. Remember when I picked you up and told you that my trunk was full?”
Stanley opened the backseat door, grabbed Tapusscar’s bags, and tossed them behind the car.
“Moreover,” he continued, “if you really want revenge for your broken wrist, and at the same time want to please your Master,” he said, “I mean, our Master, then know that they still have multiple medallions.”
Stanley swung the two recovered, silver medallions on chains back and forth like a hypnotist waving a watch. He wasn’t holding the medallion that had traveled to Italy with the couple. The one Tapusscar had been ordered to recover was not attached to a chain.
“According to that woman’s subconscious, they’re heading to a cabin in the mountains, an area called Lake Arrowhead. From what I’ve heard about your ancestry and the mountains, you should have no problem finding and eliminating them.”
Stanley shooed him farther away from the car and into the wide open expanse of asphalt. Without another word, the little man got into the Lexus and sped away.
Before the sedan left the lot, Tapusscar had recovered his precious Tokarev. The 9 MM weapon was scuffed but not scratched. By the time Tapusscar picked it up, he’d vanquished all thoughts of going after Stanley. He had been left with his two most valuable assets—his gun and his medallion.
He headed immediately toward the cars parked in the ten-minute parking zone in front of the coffee shop. He took long quick strides, gun-toting arm down. Tapusscar timed his arrival with that of a middle-aged couple who approached a maroon Pathfinder SUV.
“Keys!” he demanded.
He advanced, gun pointed at the man’s forehead. Tapusscar was in no mood to negotiate.
“Wait, not the—” were the man’s last words.
Without hesitation, Tapusscar pumped bullets into the man’s chest. The lead ripped through his body before ricocheting off the concrete sidewalk below.
The woman screamed. Then, looking back and forth between Tapusscar and the dead man, screamed again.
He enjoyed the sting of her terror in his ears. He pointed the gun in her face. She shrieked again. Killing her would buy him more time; it would be harder for the police to put together pieces of the puzzle. But he liked the sounds of her fear.
“Get on your knees, you stupid bitch,” he ordered. She did as she was told, sobbing.
“Give me the keys!”
Again, she complied, tossing him the key ring that had fallen on the ground beside the body. A crowd had begun to form in the windows and near the door of the Starbucks. No one came outside, but cell phones were already being dialed. Tapusscar didn’t care if they saw him.
Tapusscar unlocked the doors with the remote and got in the SUV.
He could smell the tires’ rubber as they squealed. He sped over to collect his luggage. The woman was crying and calling for help as he threw the bags into the back.
Tapusscar would continue to enjoy the memory of her screams until well after he began heading northbound on Interstate 15. Her terror had somehow even managed to stop the throbbing of his wrist.
- Chapter Twenty Three -
Lopez connected to Nadia’s dreaming mind; she was in the Spatium Quartus. He moved through darkness and a wispy mist of fog. As it cleared, figures appeared near the edge of a cliff. Hundreds of feet below, a black sea slapped against jagged rocks.
A crescent moon provided just enough light to reveal
how pervasive the darkness really was. Rather than exist solely in the absence of light, in the Spatium Quartus, blackness sought out and smothered all sources of light. There were no dream-scenes directly above, but closer to the horizon, images could be seen dripping slowly toward the Spatium Quartus floor. Sky-to-sky lightning flashed without thunder, providing an off-rhythm strobe light effect.
“Do it, or I’ll hurt your mommy.”
It had been decades since he’d last heard it, but Lopez immediately recognized the voice as that of Luzveyn Dred. He sprinted toward them.
Alexis held a black whip. At the tip, sharp metal blades awaited the taste of blood. In front of her, tied to a pole, two men stood naked. Their arms were held in place high overhead by an extensive network of chains that disappeared into the midnight blue sky.
The next bolt illuminated the faces of the captives, Osama bin Laden and Adolph Hitler. Chunks of skin across their midsections had been torn away, presumably by Luzveyn Dred to serve as instruction for Alexis. At their feet, tattered shreds of flesh were being eaten by a variety of rodents, reptiles, and other creatures.
“Let her go,” Lopez ordered.
The beast turned, an evil grin forming on his lips. “Or what?” Luzveyn Dred jeered at him in a melodic, mocking tone.
He cackled. Pus oozed from his every pore. His skin looked scaly, and then a second later was obscured in shadow. He flickered like a dark, smoky flame.
To the far left of the group stood a massive inverse cross. Nadia hung, upside down, strapped to it. Her blouse crumpled at her neck revealing her flat, white stomach and a black bra. Apparently more concerned for Alexis than for her own fate, she cursed at Luzveyn Dred in Russian.
He ignored her. “These are bad men, Alexis. They must be punished. Now discipline them, or I will whip your mommy!”
Lopez stepped closer. “Let her go, or I will destroy you.”
The lord of the Spatium Quartus cocked his head back and shrieked a blood-curling laugh that shook the ground. The wafer-thin moon melted like wax over a flame and dripped into the murky sea. The last glob made a searing fizz as it splashed into the water, spraying steam hundreds of feet in the air. The sunken moonlight partially illuminated the black sea. From the murky depths, creatures of mammoth proportions, with bizarre features, became visible. Then, the unholy water swallowed the glow.
The sky turned blood-red, tainting the surrounding barren land in a hue akin to the surface of Mars. The images of Hitler and bin Laden shattered into thousands of sharp fragments like a glass bomb. Lopez turned away, but felt the splinters rip into his back and legs.
“You will destroy me? Night of Nights has all but arrived!”
“Look, I’m not exactly sure what you’re babbling about,” Lopez said, “but go to hell!”
Dred laughed.
“We are virtually already there, Hector. In your world, Christians bomb abortion clinics, Buddhist monks light themselves on fire, and need we even discuss the activities of the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East?”
“Can’t we just talk about baseball?” Lopez asked, remembering how his calm sarcasm annoyed Dred.
“You think yourself so clever, Hector. Let me enlighten you to something. As we speak, hundreds of thousands of your people are quietly walking around with dormant elements of Spatium Quartus in their brains. Soon, very soon indeed, the magnitude of my arrival will be felt by your world. Elements of the Spatium Quartus will activate. Societies will crumble and people will turn on each other in an attempt to survive. The merger between our dimensions will be complete.”
“Merger? Shit—and me with no stock options.” Lopez said, having taken advantage of Dred’s speech to inch closer to Alexis.
“Keep that pathetic sense of humor, Hector. Soon, it shall be all you have left. My top assassin is closing in on you. You will spend the Final Days running and hiding. You pose no threat to me or my plans.”
“That’s good to know. I’d hate to fall off your Christmas card list. So you don’t mind that I’ll be taking my friends here, and we’ll leave you to your mad delusions of grandeur.”
“Take the woman if you want, but the little girl stays.”
“I’m not leaving her here!” Nadia yelled. “Hector, if you can get her out, just go!”
“Why do you need the little girl?” Lopez asked Dred.
Luzveyn Dred cackled. “That, Hector, is my concern.”
A distant voice arose.
“‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.’”
Alfonso approached shouting, “‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’”
Luzveyn Dred appeared more annoyed than concerned with the intrusion.
“Those are the words and the lies of Padre Gennaro. How is the good priest? Have they made him a saint yet?”
Luzveyn Dred screeched. As he did, a multitude of demons appeared in the sky. Creatures began to leap from the sea, some breaching like whales. From the land, gray beasts advanced, trapping them on the cliff.
“Get her out of here!” Lopez gestured towards Alexis.
Alfonso grabbed Alexis, as if he’d anticipated the plan. He placed a medallion on her.
Lopez dashed toward the cross. It would take every power he had to get them out of there unharmed. He focused his positive energy, leapt high and landed atop the cross. Balanced at the tip, he materialized machetes in both hands. Lopez cut the bonds that held Nadia’s feet.
He dropped behind her and, while falling, snipped both ropes that bound her outstretched arms.
Alfonso and Alexis were trapped in a fiery web of Luzveyn Dred’s creation. A dark but translucent orb surrounded and prevented them from leaving the Spatium Quartus. Sparks jumped from the sphere. Luzveyn Dred looked like an unholy sorcerer with a crystal ball. The combined power of both Lopez and Alfonso would be necessary to pry the little girl from Dred’s powerful grasp.
Lopez grabbed Nadia’s hand.
“Stay behind me!”
As they ran toward the sphere, flying creatures plummeted into and merged with it. Each collision made it cloudier, darker.
“Mommy!” Alexis screamed.
Nadia tried to blow past Lopez.
“No, wait!” Lopez said, ripping off his medallion.
He sprinted to the orb and plunged the medallion in it. An intense white light momentarily blinded him.
Demons’ shrieks could be heard as they frantically attempted to escape the glowing ball. Then, the entire orb exploded in a flash of sparks and glowing embers. Flaming demons flew about wildly before crashing into the sea, or onto the rocks.
Nadia screamed.
“Alexis is okay,” Lopez said. “She’s back.”
He still had the medallion. He needed to get Nadia out.
Luzveyn Dred thrust his arms toward the sky and released a primal yell. Winds picked up with such intensity that everything in the vicinity was swept into the air. Lopez clutched for but missed Nadia’s hand.
The ire in Luzveyn Dred’s voice escalated with each syllable. “If I cannot have Alexis, then I shall kill you both!”
Lopez was propelled into a group of boulders forty yards away from Luzveyn Dred. Nadia had been flung in the opposite direction.
Dred bore down on him. “This time Hector, you shall not escape.”
At the proclamation, Nadia grabbed a large rock and heaved it in an apparent attempt to distract the demon. It thudded to the Spatium Quartus floor as she darted away from the noise.
Without looking back, Luzveyn Dred’s thorny tail extended up and out. Like a laser beam, it shot through Nadia’s chest. The tail retracted, the tip curled around her still-beating, blood-pumping heart. Luzveyn Dred wiggled the heart back and forth in a triumphantly evil wave. His rage replaced with a look of lustful pride.
Lopez’s experiences had numbed him.
It was impossible to feel the pain of each lost life. Like a soldier on D-day, death surrounded him, but he moved forward, step by step, knowing that the cause he fought for was a just one. He took advantage of Dred’s celebratory moment. Clutching his medallion, he projected himself back. For the first time, he considered the possibility that Dred really could claim the world and everything in it.
- Chapter Twenty Four -
Alfonso inhaled, sucking air into his lungs as if it would be his final gasp. Kat glanced back at him in the rear view mirror. He looked pale, drawn, almost withered.
“You okay, old man?”
He eased up into a sitting position. “I’m all right.”
The right tires of the van ahead veered over the yellow line, and then swerved back to correct its course. The erratic driving made it clear that there had been a disturbance.
“What the hell is going on?” Kat asked.
“Nadia is dead.”
“Oh my God! What happened? Did Alexis get out all right? What the hell happened?”
Before Alfonso could answer, Lopez transmitted news of his return and well-being, but his voice sounded strained.
“Ditto that with Alfonso.”
What was not said in the silence that followed indicated that not all had survived. Time for sharing the details would come once the procession completed its journey up the mountain.
“No more cell phone or radio contact until we’re safely at the cabin,” Lopez said. “We’ve gotta make sure we’re not being monitored.”
*
*
*
Alexis was crying.
Drew glanced behind him expecting Nadia to awaken and console her. A moment later, as Alexis continued to sob, he looked back and couldn’t believe it. Nadia’s body was gone.
Lopez regained consciousness.
“Where’s Nadia?”
“She’s gone, Drew. I’m sorry.”
Drew attempted to justify the events of the last few days. He tried to figure out how it could be undone, reversed. Perhaps the insanity of it all led to an obscure solution that would return his life—their lives—back to normal, the quiet predictability he’d enjoyed since his recovery from alcoholism. He knew exactly what Lopez meant, and he had a dozen questions to ask, but he didn’t even know where to begin.
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