Blood Heavy: Ascension
Page 21
“What did she say?” Sophinia asked, looking so encapsulated.
“She said I wasn't ready. That it wasn't time.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“I don't know. She looked right at me. She's never done that before. I don't think this barrier thing is just a memory. I think it's really her,” Jerry breathed.
“You mean she's actually inside your head?”
“That's not possible!” Rachel said walking through the door and joining them. Goose and Wick followed seconds later while Vic didn't show up at all. That guy was a seriously deep sleeper. “You haven't shown any signs of something like that.”
“I know but she...I can feel it. She's watching me all the time.”
“This is getting crazy!” Joe growled in frustration. He corrected himself a moment later. “Crazier. First a demon now a woman living in your head that pulled you out of a coma.”
Sophinia rubbed Jerry's back gently trying to reassure him. He closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing for a moment when a immovable thought entered his mind. Jerry suddenly looked up at Rachel.
“Rachel, you said Vic can sense magic?”
“Yeah, he can.”
“I need you to send me back to that hospital in my head. And this time you're sending him in with me.”
That made everybody freeze and look at him.
“So, you want us to go all Inception on your brain in the hopes that I can sense what kind of magic this bird used to put up the crazy barrier in your head?” Vic asked about fifteen minutes later when they were all back in the library. They had to shake him for about five minutes straight to wake him up but he finally had. “How am I supposed to do that if I'm not even going to be in me own body?”
“Well, you'll be lying right next to me the whole time, so if we can get your consciousness close enough, you should be able to pick up on it,” Jerry said.
“I'm not giving you a psychic lobotomy, you'll still be connected to your body and your power,” Rachel added.
“Still sounds like a sure fire way to end up sectioned. You really want me poking around in your thoughts?” he asked Jerry.
“Rachel will block out everything except the barrier and construction of the hospital. You won't see anything else.”
“And you can leave any time you want. All you have to do is signal me. You'll actually have to want to come out though. Trying to force you out if you don't want to go can be very dangerous and difficult.”
“Why would I want to stay?” Vic asked incredulously.
“Hey!”
“No offense mate, but after all the bollocks you've been thought lately, I'm surprised you haven't started muttering to the furniture,” he said before taking a swig of his hip flask.
Jerry looked like he was about to respond but then stopped and seemed to realize that Vic actually had a point. By all rights, he should have been completely fruit loops by now.
“I taught you tried dis a bunch a times before?” Vic asked, “and it didn't work.”
“No, it didn't, but she's never spoken to me in my dreams before either. I don't know why but my guts telling me that she has answers,” Jerry said sounding a little frustrated. It really wasn't easy to relay what he was feeling to others.
“Answers to what? Aria?” Wick wondered.
“Answers to everything. To me, my mother, Aria...maybe even how to stop her!”
“Well, in that case, I say go for it,” the priest said happily. “In fact, I'm gonna go to the real hospital and check out the room where you were healed.”
“We swept that whole hospital, top to bottom and found nothing,” Claire said quickly.
“Yeah, but I think I have a few methods you guys didn't try,” Wick said shaking his journal at them. It was true. They'd never used Enochian magic for anything before, especially not to investigate the hospital.
“But didn't she actually say to you that it wasn't time yet?” Sophinia asked. “How do you know she'll even talk to you?”
“I don't, but unless a freakin' archangel shows up to get it's smite on with Aria, I'd say it's worth a try!”
“I'm uncomfortable with jumping into somebody else's mind but alright, I'll give it a go. Don't get ya hopes up though, whether this bird will actually talk to you or not is one ting but me being able to sense the magic she used while not even being in me own body is someting else entirely. This could be a wasted trip ya know.”
“Well, If you've got any better ideas?” Jerry shrugged.
“Fraid not,” Vic said taking a swig of his hip-flask.
“Alright, before you get started, you think you could do your Star Trek thing and beam us to St. Cloud?” Joe asked.
“Us?” Wick said looking a little surprised.
“Yeah, I'm going with you. You might need back up,” he said simply.
“No argument here,” Wick grinned.
“I'll go too,” Claire said stepping forward.
“No, baby, you can't. He can zap us there but he's gotta stay behind and take a stroll through my nephews subconscious so we'll have to drive back and the sun will probably be up by then. Stay here,” he said gently.
Claire clearly didn't like the idea of Joe being out there without her to look after him but nodded in agreement. It was Joe after all and he was fully capable of taking care of himself.
“I'll go with em too,” Goose said. He was clearly doing it to try and reassure Claire. Safety in numbers and such. Besides, he wouldn't be much help if Jerry and Vic were going to be taking this little adventure while they were asleep. He'd be left to just sit around and wait in the mansion. He might as well make himself useful in the meantime.
“Alright, you, me and Goose,” Joe shrugged.
The three of them left the library to gear up.
Vic was still looking a little on edge by the whole thing as he took another swig of his whiskey. He had come here from God knows where to act as a daytime bodyguard for Jerry and before he could even get started they were now being chased by a super powered demon and were about to take a trip inside a teenagers head. This crap definitely wasn't on the brochure.
CHAPTER 20 – SCANNERS
Sioux Falls – South Dakota
The hospital looked exactly as it had done during all the other times he'd been there. It's outside colors practically matched the gray skies above and despite the ambient sounds, there were no cars or birds around. In fact, hospital seemed to be the only real thing there. The rest of the buildings around it simply seemed like cardboard cutouts or Hollywood backdrops.
“This is bloody strange,” Vic said looking around next to Jerry.
“You'll get used to it,” he shrugged.
Vic looked down at his own hand for a second. A moment later a small flame appeared in his outstretched palm.
“I still got me powers,” he said looking surprised.
“Or maybe you just think you still have your powers? This is technically a dream.”
Vic glanced sideways at him looking annoyed. “Jerry, I'm an alcoholic and therefore easily confused. Let's keep this simple.”
“Yeah, you're right,” he sighed. “Okay, about three minutes after we get in here, the cops are gonna start chasing us. Don't worry about killing them, they aren't real. But they're gonna do everything they can to try and stop us.”
“Den them containment doors start droppin'?”
“Right. If you've still got your powers you might be able to melt through them or something but I'm not putting money on that. We need to get to the forth floor, room four twelve.”
“Alright, lets get this over with Trinity,” Vic shrugged.
“I'm not Trinity, I'm Neo!”
“No, I'm Neo, I'm the one with the super powers. You're the leather-clad woman,” Vic said nonchalantly then started walking towards the hospital.
“Yeah, I'll...clad your leather...l...” Jerry sighed and gave up when he couldn't think of a witty comeback. He moved towards the hospital.
Since she was now working with two minds, instead of one, the others has decided to keep their distance in case they accidentally distracted her. Cass, Claire and Sophinia were standing in the main hallway of the mansion, simply waiting and hoping.
Vic had 'zapped' Joe, Goose and Wick to St. Cloud to investigate the real hospital about ten minutes before leaving the whole place eerily quiet. The rest of Sophinia's vampire army were outside, walking the parameter and keeping guard. Some where even steadily moving across the roof, keeping an eye out from up high.
The evening air was pretty warm and the sky wasn't too cloudy leaving the moon to illuminate the the place quite well.
“You think it'll work?” Cass asked absentmindedly.
“We can pray,” Sophinia sighed.
“Did you just make a joke?” Cass asked looking surprised.
“A sad joke...”
“Urg,” she growled. “I can't stand all this waiting!”
“You'd think after four hundred years you would have learned a little patience,” Claire remarked.
“You'd think after four hundred years I wouldn't have to barricade myself inside a mansion because an uber-demon is coming to kill me and kidnap a guy I once slept with.”
“True, this isn't how we usually spend our weekends,” Claire shrugged dismally.
“I need a drink,” Cass said before walking off towards the kitchen.
For a second she and Sophinia stood silently in the hallway. Claire's face turned to concern when she saw the troubled look on the purebloods face.
“Soph?”
“I'm just thinking.”
“About Jerry?” she guessed.
“How can the world be so cruel to him?” she actually looked on the verge of tears.
Claire didn't really know what to say. She had never had to comfort Sophinia before, it had always been the other way around. Her four hundred years might make her a powerful and intelligent vampire around most of her species but when measured against Sophinia's years and experience, she was practically an adolescent.
“He's a tough kid,” she said placing a gentle hand on Sophie's shoulder. “He's made it through some pretty heavy shit.”
“He's never faced this before. None of us have.”
“First time for everything,” Claire said feeling a bit stupid after saying it.
Sophinia stayed silent, simply looking down at the ground. It pained Claire to know that there were no real words of comfort that she could give to her friend to cheer her up. But she knew how strong Sophinia was, physically and mentally. It wasn't fair to assume that this moment of worrying made her any weaker.
Claire turned and walked over to the intercom that sat on the wall a few feet away while checking her watch. She pushed one of the little white buttons and then another before leaning closer to speak into the mic.
“Fredrick, you can change up the patrols now.”
A few seconds passed and only silence was returned.
“Fredrick? You hear me?” More silence. Claire pushed a few more buttons on the intercom. “Larz, can you hear me? Does anybody copy?”
Sophinia was staring at the intercom, waiting for a response but none came. Cass returned with a beer in hand and immediately saw the tense looks on their faces.
“What's wrong?”
“We've lost contact with the parameter guard,” Claire said turning even more pale than she already was.
A single second of silence followed before Sophinia spoke.
“She's here.”
And she was. Aria was walking up the drive-way, her black wings out in all their glory. This time there was no smug smile on her face, no seductive words, no fake kindness.
Now she looked really pissed off!
Gunfire erupted around the mansion as some of Sophinia's guards attempted to shoot her but the bullets just flew off in other directions as soon as they got close to her. A moment later the guards spontaneously combusted into sparks and ash. She hadn’t even touched them but they were dying all around her.
More vampires rushed outside while other took up positions around Sophinia and the others.
“We have to get Daniel out of here now!” Sophinia ordered.
They didn't need to run off and warn her. Despite concentrating on pulling Jerry and Vic back to reality, there was no way she could have missed the gun shots. It was a war zone.
Cass shot towards the front door and looked out into the open driveway. Sophinia wasn’t hard to find. She was the giant winged demon that had vampires exploding all around her. She was still marching towards the house looking so angry that she barely took notice of the bullets and guards.
It wasn’t until she took a few more steps forward that she suddenly slammed into an invisible wall. She stopped and looked around before reaching her hand out. The moment her fingers touched the magic the wall became visible around them as a strange sort of yellow electricity. It buzzed and glow for a moment before fading when she took her hand away.
From the distance she saw Aria start to mutter something to herself but couldn't make out what.
“Ahh shit!” Cass said rushing back to Sophinia. “She's working some kind of counter-spell to break Wick's barrier.”
“We're running out of time,” Soph said.
She shot back into the library to see Rachel still leaning over Jerry and Vic.
“Rachel, get them out of there!”
“I'm trying! They're at the block, I can't change anything in there!” she said with her eyes tightly shut.
“You gotta warn them some how!”
Rachel thought quickly and then sent the only warning she could. Inside his mind Jerry and Vic were battling their way through the guards that always showed up. Jerry was shooting at them while Vic launched great cones of fire at them from the palms of his hand. They ran down the corridor towards room four-twelve just as a strange high-pitched sound started ringing out. It wasn't the hospital alarms, more like a ringing in their ears.
“What is that?! You hear it?!” Jerry yelled before firing at the corner.
“Does dat usually happen?” Vic asked as they continued to run.
“No! I don't know what that is!”
“Jerry, I tink we better call this off,” Vic said looking a little worried.
“No, we're almost there!”
“Damnit! He doesn't want to leave!” Rachel yelled as she her Jerry's thoughts.
“Just yank him out!”
“That could kill him!”
“Aria's gonna kill us all!” Cass shot back. “Just get him out of there!” She bolted out of the library again and to the front door, crossing the distance in only a few short seconds because of her vampire speed. Again she looked out towards where Aria had run into the Enochian shield.
She had stopped speaking or chanting or whatever the hell she was doing and was now focusing on the invisible barrier in front of her. Suddenly the earth began to quake. The yellow energy from the shield suddenly began to show again but this time it expanded into an enormous dome that covered the entire mansion. Aria, with incredible force, slammed both the tips of her wings into the shield causing huge cracks to appear. It was like a slow build up of pressure on a window. Sooner or later it was going to break.
It was sooner.
Suddenly the entire dome collapsed and the broken pieces disappeared into little wisps of yellow light. Aria's wings folded behind her back and started advancing on the mansion again.
“Shit! She's broken through!” Cass yelled as more gun fire erupted.
More vampires tried to shoot at Aria but to no effect. She slaughtered them just as she had before not slowing down even for a second. Cass rushed back to Sophinia and Claire at the end of the hallway as other guards took up positions behind furniture or against walls. They all stood
, waiting for her.
Cass and Claire exchanged a sad look, as if to say: It had to end some time. Might as well go out fighting. Except there probably wouldn't be any fighting. They wouldn't even get a single hit in before Aria killed them all. At least they might be able to buy Rachel, Jerry and Vic some time.
Then, just like that, everything was deathly quiet. The shooting outside had stopped. Since none of them had heartbeats or needed to breath, there was no sound anywhere. Every millisecond seemed to get longer and longer.