Vampire flesh began to smoke. Veronica's three Get fled first, vanishing into the darkness like a bad dream.
Rachel slowly pushed herself to her feet, holding the glowing ankh out like a talisman—which, she supposed, it actually was.
Veronica's face began to melt away from her skull like hot wax, pouring black smoke. She aimed one snarl at Rachel and simply vanished. One second she was there, the next she wasn't. Not trusting appearances, Rachel slowly turned, shining the light from the ankh in every direction. Veronica was gone.
* * * *
Amanda pulled herself to her feet, groaning. “Is everyone okay?"
The question was met with scattered moans as the Marines slowly stood, taking up their weapons and forming a ragged circle around the two women.
"It's too bad you couldn't protect our allies from that at the same time you drive away our enemies,” Warren grunted. “But thanks just the same."
Amanda winced. Truth be told, she hadn't even thought of it. She should have, but that was what happened when one snapped out a spell on the fly. Some magic was trial and error. Too much of magic was trial and error, she amended silently.
She rolled her shoulders to loosen them. Not like it helped. She was about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. They couldn't get the upper hand here the way things were going. They'd suffer a war of attrition—if not sooner, then later. The only ones guaranteed to survive were the vampires. The rest of them could be taken down in a split second, and there really wasn't a hell of a lot they could do about it.
On the other hand ... She reached up, grabbing two threads out of the air, bringing them together into a complex knot. She shoved it into her body, feeling the power like pure heat in her bones. She wobbled a little, but quickly wove another. And another. She sent them flashing through the air to Rachel, then each Marine in turn. Strength and speed.
She only hoped it would be enough.
* * * *
Standing in the dim tunnel, Cory waited for the spell-light to vanish. He gave a violent start as a shape came wheeling around the corner. One of Veronica's Get, running in blind panic from the daylight brought deep underground by Amanda's spell. The smell of burning flesh filled his nostrils.
He snatched her off her feet and slammed her to the floor. He hammered the back of her skull into the stone and punched her repeatedly until she lay still. He rose to his feet and stared down at her, the urge to end her existence on the spot.
In some respects she was a victim. More or less. Whatever she'd done was Veronica's will, not her own. He could do the same thing to her that he'd done to Shine, he mused. If he had the time. He considered it for a long moment.
Dammit! It wasn't as though he had a choice. He had to do it. The alternative was to leave her here, dead or alive. Alive, she'd simply get up and join the enemy again. Dead—well, he'd already decided that he couldn't just kill her out of hand.
He felt his fangs extend as he crouched down next to her.
* * * *
"We can't stay here,” Rachel said. Scorpius glanced at her and nodded. He made a couple of hand signals and the Marines spread out through the cavern, guarding the intersecting tunnels.
"Where to?” he asked her.
She could only shrug. She wasn't sure. “I don't know what to do. They're like fucking ghosts. They can hit us and fade before we can do anything. The only way we can protect ourselves endangers our own people."
::What good is a meta-sniper here? Or a human chameleon? We're crawling around in a dark hole filled with mindless zombies and vampires who want to kill us. Our only real protection is as likely to harm our own vampires as the bad guys.
::Fuck! This is like a nightmare.::
::I think I've had this nightmare before.:: The humor in Scorpius's mental voice set her teeth on edge.
::It isn't funny.::
::No? Then you're not looking at it the right way. Rachel ... in case you haven't noticed, they're on the run.::
::For now. Veronica isn't thinking things through. If she was—we'd be screwed.::
He didn't reply, but she caught the sudden flash of agreement before he cut the mental connection. ::Great,:: she thought. ::I'm not even alone in my own head anymore.::
"Heads up,” called out Pollard. “We've got company."
He wasn't kidding, Rachel realized. The stone floor vibrated beneath them with the sound of countless feet hammering against the earth.
"What the—?"
"Zombies,” answered Warren, from another tunnel entrance. “A whole shitload of them. What do I do?"
Caught flat-footed, Rachel wasn't sure how to answer. She shot a questioning look at Scorpius, who looked about as stunned as she felt. ::We can't just mow them down.::
Cory reappeared suddenly, a woman in his arms. “We've gotta get out of here. We can't win this one."
Amanda shook her head, jaw set stubbornly. “We can't let her win."
"If the option is killing a bunch of innocents,” Cory snarled, “we damn well will let her win for now. It's called making a strategic withdrawal."
"A little late for that.” Veronica's voice cut through the chatter and the sound of drumming feet, her words slicing out like a knife forged out of ice, bitingly cold and sharp as a arctic wind. She held a large black woman by her dreadlocks, dragging her like a CPR dummy as she ascended her dais.
She dropped the woman at her feet, where she knelt there and retched. Her skin was a sickly shade of gray, her eyes sinking so far into their sockets she looked like a raccoon. Unlike the other humans in Veronica's shadow, she looked more or less lucid.
"Shit. That's Madelyn Tooms.” Rachel took a deep breath, feeling as though her heart was going to chew its way out of her chest.
"I heard someone suggest you all turn around and—what was it I heard?—oh, yes—'make a strategic withdrawal.’ Well, that sounds like a lovely idea to me."
Rachel turned slowly as the chamber began to fill with sad, shuffling figures wearing blank stares, cradling shovels and picks in their arms. There seemed to be an infinite number of them and, within moments, nearly every square inch of the huge cavern was filled with warm bodies staring rapturously at the woman who held their reins.
"All I have to do,” Veronica breathed, “is say the word. You'll all die. Or you'll be forced to kill them. And I'll simply reach down and kill her.” She poked Mrs. Tooms in the back with her bare foot. “Is that what you want?"
* * * *
Cory set the young woman down beside him, where she stared at her maker with undisguised hatred.
Veronica returned her baleful gaze in kind. “I don't know how you managed to turn two of my creatures from me, boy, but it's a secret I intend to have before you leave this place."
"Your intentions do not interest me,” he answered tersely, his voice carrying as well as hers.
"Do you really want to play games with me?” She reached down and snatched Mrs. Tooms up by the back of her neck. “I am in no mood for games."
"What do you want?” Amanda asked, lifting her pistol up and sighting it in on her.
Veronica laughed. “You can't hurt me with that."
"Are you sure about that?"
By the look on her face, Cory guessed that she wasn't sure. Not entirely. Score one for our side.
"You're going to piss me off,” she said. “Don't push your luck."
"As I asked already—what do you want?"
"I'd like you to all go away, but I don't think that'll happen. So I'll settle for simple surrender."
Scorpius gave a barking laugh in response to that. “Lady, you don't know Marines very well. We're not going to give up our weapons."
"Then you all will die."
* * * *
Amanda returned her pistol to her waistband. She closed her eyes halfway, summoning her magesight. The cave was literally infused with mana. The strands filled the air like confetti at a Macy's parade. She made as if to stretch and grabbed a thre
ad in each hand, feeling them coil restlessly around her wrists. She carefully flicked her fingers, commanding one strand to stretch from her to a point scant inches away from Veronica's unblinking eye. The end closest to herself she stretched open to its utmost. And left it there, hanging. “Why don't you just let us go?” she asked. “You've obviously won this round."
"I don't want there to be another round,” Veronica answered casually. “If I destroy you here, I'll be safe while I continue my search."
"Search?"
"I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing. This isn't a Bond movie. The villain isn't going to explain everything to you in full detail so you can escape her trap and foil her plans.” She allowed herself a brief smile. “I'm feeling generous. Say your goodbyes to one another. You have one minute."
"I don't think so,” Amanda said, not bothering with a glance at the others. “Why don't you surrender?"
"You're fucking with me? With me? I am a goddess!"
"No. You're pretty much a big fucking parasite.” In one smooth motion she yanked the pistol back out of her waistband, pulling it up and firing off a single round. The spell she'd laid on herself earlier gave her speed nearly equal to a vampire's. The gun was out and roaring before Veronica could react with much beyond a startled blink.
The slug entered Veronica's eye while it was still half-closed. It punched through the eyelid, through the eye itself, and burst through the optic nerves into the vampire's brain. It passed through the gray matter without much effect, until it hit the back of her skull. At that point it expanded into a gnarled fist of lead and rebounded, cutting an even wider swath the second time through. On the third pass it found a weak point at the base of the skull and burst through, leaving a hole the size of a grapefruit and showering the cavern wall behind her with brains, blood, and tiny shards of bone.
The zombies went nuts.
Amanda saw Shine go down first, a pickaxe buried in the back of her skull. Against so many, even a vampire's speed was of little use. Jason and Gina went back to back, fending off attackers with such speed and grace she would've been astounded, had she the time.
She whipped out the second mana thread, entangling as many zombies as she could in its grasp. Six or seven fell in a jumbled heap as she tried to clear the way to reach Rachel and the Marines.
One of them went down. She couldn't see who. A sea of blank faces stood between them.
* * * *
"Shoot them!” Scorpius yelled.
Rachel shot him a shocked look and he simply snarled at her. “What do you want to do—stand here and let them kill us?"
Was that how she wanted to go—done in by a horde of mindless automatons made out of the very people she'd sworn to protect? Not only no, but fuck no. She snatched her weapon from its holster and fired point-blank into a woman's face, trying not to see her smiling gently behind the main desk at the city library.
She fell, only to be replaced by Bert, from the hardware store. She put a round straight into the center of his chest. And on to the next. By the time she'd emptied her magazine, tears were streaming down her face and she was blinking rapidly just trying to see well enough to shoot. She changed mags without even thinking, drawing another bead and sending another citizen of Redburn into the afterlife with a single squeeze of her forefinger.
She was sobbing now, great choking gasps that left her slightly dizzy as she continued to aim and shoot. She heard three M-16s chatter, then a harsh cry as one of them went silent. She shoved the gun into an unidentified chest and shot.
They were retreating en masse as Scorpius led the way into one of the tunnels leading back toward the exit. Rachel stepped over fallen bodies, deliberately not looking at any of them. An arm swung under her foot and she fell, nearly face-first into a mangled corpse. She pushed herself up, blinking away the tears, and felt herself gag. The corpse she'd fallen into was Ben's father, Andrew. He wasn't quite dead, she realized. It had been his arm that had tripped her. But he was on his way—the blood bubbling through his shredded chest made that a certainty. “Rachel,” he gasped.
Ohmygod. He's aware.
"I'm sorry.” His voice was barely audible. He reached up, pawed at her jacket. “Tell Ben—I'm sorry."
He gave one tired moan and fell back, eyes glazing over as death took him.
Well, shit. Rachel stood, scanning the tunnel. Where was Cory? She hadn't caught sight of him since Veronica had gone down.
* * * *
Amanda blew a matronly woman into the afterlife and swept the muzzle of her weapon across her body, putting a round through the eye of a brutish fellow wearing a blue jacket with the familiar emblem of a big name gas station shining brightly over the embroidered name “Gabe."
"Sorry, Gabe,” she murmured, turning to catch sight of her mother's burning eyes staring at her through the darkness. She glanced down at Gabe's body and shrugged. Then they were swept up in the retreat once again.
Glancing over her shoulder she saw Jason snatch up one of their attackers and tear out his throat with a vicious slash of his hand, swallowing the first gout of blood, and then thrusting his face deep into the wound.
She gagged, lifting her weapon and taking aim at the back of his head. The bastard. She spun away and took down another zombie.
The withdrawal went slowly, step by step, mired in the sound of gunfire and the falling dead.
* * * *
Cory gasped as one of the zombies walked straight through him as if he wasn't even there. What the—?
"Don't panic,” someone murmured in his ear. “You are quite safe."
He spun, finding himself facing a tall, handsome man with streaked blond hair and vaguely Asian eyes. The man held up his hand, a strange gem embedded in his palm that pulsed with an odd emerald light. “Who are you? And what have you done to me?"
"Kept you safe,” the stranger said.
"I don't want to be safe when they're in danger!” Cory snapped.
"I had a feeling you'd feel that way. Just keep watching."
Cory saw his mother pulled down, recognized her assailant, heard the gasped words as easily as she had. He watched in horror equal to Amanda's as Jason took the opportunity to feed. He whirled on his unwelcome companion—captor?—and snarled; “Why have you done this?"
"I need a vampire. I could have taken any of you, but you have other abilities that will be of use to me in the long run."
"Of use to you? I will not be your pawn."
"I don't need a pawn,” the other man murmured, watching as the party fought its way through a clump of zombies seemingly guarding the exit to the outer cave system. “I need an ally."
"Hell of a way to recruit one."
His lips twitched. “It is, isn't it?” A sigh escaped him and he seemed to deflate a little. “I don't know why Hades wants a vampire. I can only assume he wants to study you, maybe analyze the metavirus that is even now changing you.
"But I know you have the mage gift, too. I can sense it in you. That is something he will not expect."
"Good to hear. I'd hate to be predictable."
"So far you've been anything but."
"Where are we?” Cory froze, stunned as a screaming phantom rose from a corpse and buzz the cave a few times before vanishing through the ceiling. “And what the fuck was that?"
The abrupt change of subject seemed to throw the stranger off. “We're one step away from the real world here. It's called the ethereal plane. And that was the soul of one of those killed by your friends. A ghost—if you'd prefer."
More of the specters rose from the dead, flying around as if maddened, and then vanishing as abruptly as the first one did.
"Where do they go?"
"Hell if I know. I'm as new to this place as you are. I've read about it, but I never expected to see it."
They trailed slowly behind the group as they made their way to the outermost cavern. “They're going to think I'm dead."
"No. I'll take care of that. I promise."
"
You promise? Oh, that makes me feel so much better."
"I can't blame you for feeling that way.” He sighed, deep and long. “My name is Gavin Chase. I used to work for the Paranormal Affairs Commission. Until the immortal Hades stole my wife and child and forced me to do his bidding. I walked away from the P.A.C., but not before digging out information that I could use ... information about these.” He held up his hands to reveal a gem in either palm. “Even though I don't have mage talent, I can work magic at least as well as Amanda Keening now—if not better.
"Hades ordered me to find him a vampire and bring it back. I could have taken any of you. But I think you have the best chance of escaping his clutches. That's why I picked you."
Cory wasn't sure how to respond to this. Chase sounded desperate, as if whatever he did was only to save his wife and child. Despite this Cory couldn't bring himself to trust him. It didn't sound like he had much choice but to go along, however he felt about it. “I want to make sure they're all safe before we go anywhere."
"I can understand that,” Chase replied, showing his teeth in what might've been intended to be a smile. “But we need to leave soon."
It was at that exact moment Cory realized where he'd seen this guy before. He was the one who'd been at his house with Cory's mother that night. It seemed an eternity ago. He'd thought the man was trouble then and events hadn't proved him wrong.
* * * *
They burst into bright moonlight, pouring rounds into the cavern mouth. As the last echo died Rachel sagged and fell to her knees. “God."
Scorpius laid a hand on her shoulder and sank down beside her, his rifle hanging limply from his other hand. “I'm sorry."
"So am I,” she murmured.
"Uh ... guys?” Gina was facing the other direction. They shifted, looking over their shoulders. And froze. The sound of a several hundred rifles being locked and loaded rang through the chill night air.
Twenty
A slim, dark-eyed man wearing field dress and golden bird insignias on his lapels stepped forward, hand on the holster at his side. “What the hell's going on here?"
Behind him stood three rows of soldiers, weapons at the ready.
Scorpius stood, turning slowly, holding his rifle at arm's length and lowering it gently to the ground. “You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Of Man and Monster Page 23