He saw a female shape sheathed in black, with a lion's mane of midnight spraying off her head somersaulting over him. She landed on the back of the room's tiny sofa as he scrambled to get into a better position before she came at him again.
He kicked into a clumsy roll that spilled him out onto the open stretch of carpet between the table and the balcony door. He risked a glance back and saw the intended target of his spell, Jason Keening, on his toes trying his hardest to resist the urge to rush to his aid. If he broke the circle in which he now stood, all the effort behind this spell would have been wasted. The time-gate would fold and Jason would be trapped here, probably never again to see another opportunity like this one.
Thoth backed up to the sliding glass door, fingers clawing for a strand. He felt the tingle of contact and whipped it forward. The thread leaped as if of its own volition, aimed straight for the heart of the spell sharing the circle with the waiting vampire.
The thread impacted the spell, which reacted to its activation by sending a powerful shock-wave coursing through the room with enough concussive force to throw his attacker to the floor and shove him straight through the balcony door. As glass shards fell around him he aimed his gaze at the far side of the room and the fountain of chromatic energy where the vampire had stood a moment earlier.
He hit the balcony rail and tumbled over, the ground rushing up at him with unerring accuracy. He struck hard, the wind blown from his body by the impact.
* * * *
Jaz rolled into the broken glass and regained her footing just in time to watch Thoth go over. She whirled toward the crackling glow from the opposite side of the couch and shrank back from its fierce blazing fury. It put off no heat, but radiated a magical field that had every hair on her body standing on end.
"Holy shit! What the hell is that?" Loki called out, shaking off Orcus's grasp and jumping the short distance to the floor.
"Hell if I know, Loki!” Jaz called out. “Thoth went over the balcony—he's getting away!"
"I'll get him,” Orcus yelled, leaping for the balcony.
"Wait!” yelled both Loki and Renee. The bi-colored giant launched himself from the room and over the edge of the balcony, having to run on all fours to clear the upper part of the frame. He hit the rail and took it with him. “I'd better go with him,” Renee said. She followed, a streak of soft whiteness that left a strange after-image for half a second after she'd gone.
"What about—?"
And the fountain of light vanished, leaving behind whirling spots on their eyes from where they'd stared too long. “What the hell was that?" Jaz wondered aloud. Loki just shrugged. Cecil and Ben emerged from the mirror, a split second before Chaz and Amanda.
"Where's Thoth?” Ben asked, quickly looking around.
"Gone. Orcus and Renee are chasing him."
"Then what the hell are we all doing standing here? Which way?"
* * * *
Quickfingers shouted as loud as he could and rushed at the side of the bottle. He bounced off, but the vessel rocked just slightly. He rushed the side again, throwing himself into it with everything he had in him.
The bottle flew through the air and smashed into the mirror, sending both tumbling to the floor. Loki, mid-step, caught the bottle under his heel and fell backwards into Jaz, who caught him with one arm as she tried to keep herself from flailing with the arm still holding her katana.
She righted both of them and glanced down at the bottle. What the hell? She set Loki aside and reached down to pluck the bottle off the floor. “Quickfingers?"
"Get me out!” he shouted, which sounded, at best, like a tinny squeak from a very small radio. She stepped out of the midst of everyone, tossed the bottle in the air, and sliced the neck clear through with one slash of the crystal sword.
The imp expanded to normal size and landed on the table with the upset mirror. “It's about time you got here, boss!” He threw himself into her arms, wrapping his own around her neck. He planted a kiss on her cheek.
"Ah, geez. Don't do that,” she protested, but secretly she was a little pleased. It made her feel better that he'd been a prisoner rather than destroyed or just too self-involved to answer her call. How he'd been held like that was of interest as well, but that little question could wait until they'd caught Thoth.
"We'd better get running!” Loki yelled. “Renee thinks he's casting some sort of ‘gate spell!"
"I'll get him!” Quickfingers vanished with a bang as the rest of them raced for the broken balcony door.
* * * *
Thoth slashed out with a strand, cutting the giant's feet out from under him, then hurled a ball of flame at the vampire. Renee side-stepped it and kept coming, a grim look of determination on her face. Her white dress against her white skin caught in the glow of the moonlight cast an eerie pall over the scene. Thoth snatched a ready-made spell from his web and threw it out—it flashed and swelled into a man-sized worldgate.
He spotted the others rushing in his direction at a run—which for some of them was pretty damn fast. The black figure of Raven and the blond bulk of the werewolf were in the lead, but Loki and Jaz were right on their heels.
He spun and dove through the ‘gate.
* * * *
"Dammit!” Jaz snatched a thread and snapped it out, using it to prevent the ‘gate from closing. At the last minute she converted it to a transit tube and leaped inside its open mouth. She ejected from the other end and found herself falling.
She found the ground some fifteen feet below, crashing down onto a steep slope into a patch of blackberry bushes. She fought the grappling vines until she could swing her arm, after which they fell to vicious slashes of her katana. It took her scant seconds to carve her way through to a dry streambed and the pasture on the other side.
She made the leap across the barren gulch easily and stopped to get her bearings. A sudden movement to her left made her duck just in time to evade the lightning bolt that sizzled through the air barely a foot above her head. She smelled scorched hair.
She met the next bolt with a grounding strand and returned fire in kind. A flock of birds took wing in panic as the two mages cast spell after spell at one another, the very air starting to smoke from the power being expended.
The night was illuminated to an amazing degree by the presence of two moons in the sky. Now if that isn't weird, she thought ... aren't all these worlds alternate Earths? Shouldn't they have the same number of moons and the same land-masses? This doesn't look like Washington State. Too dry. The blackberries sure fit, though. Maybe they were in the middle of a drought.
* * * *
She heard the sound of crashing behind her and surmised that the rest of the crew had followed her mad dash through the ‘gate. Either that or they'd stumbled into a dinosaur's hunting ground. Right now she wouldn't put anything outside the realm of possibility. Two moons? What will they think of next?
She watched Thoth grab another spell from his web and activate yet another ‘gate. As he vanished through it, she was already repeating her gambit from before. She leaped in and was ejected from the other side, falling to her knees as her feet hit a steel floor.
A long corridor stretched in front of her, but it was filled with people in uniform. The uniforms of U.S. soldiers, near as she could tell.
"Help! Intruder! Spy! Killer!” Thoth screamed, dodging through the soldiers and trying to put as many between him and her as he possibly could. One reached out to restrain her and she tore free, dropping into a series of cartwheels and then one superhuman front-flip that cleared half the distance between her and Thoth.
She straight-armed one soldier who'd stepped in her way, then reached down and snatched another's foot out from under him. She hadn't broken stride yet, and, as long as she could keep him in sight, she had no intention of doing so.
A pair of soldiers grabbed her from behind, each taking one arm at the shoulder and at the wrist. She sent her katana into its dimension pocket and whirled them around so qu
ickly they were no longer sure who they were fighting. She left them busy trying to subdue each other and strode forward in pursuit of Thoth.
Gunfire erupted behind her but she didn't dare take her eyes off of Thoth. He was urging the soldiers to come after her en masse even as he was drawing down another spell. This time she had a thread in the air before he'd even finished casting the ‘gate.
She entered the ‘gate almost literally on his ass, tumbling out onto a wide expanse of lawn within a few feet of him. He scrambled to his feet, clawing for another spell, as she kicked herself into a standing position.
A gout of flame leaped from his hand as one of her defensive spells unfolded in a three-pronged shielding array. It deflected the fire lance handily. “You can't run forever, Thoth!” she called out, as he scrambled backwards for a second, eyes widening in panic, before he whirled and made an all out break for whatever lay beyond that next small rise.
He reached the top and disappeared. She sprinted in pursuit, cresting the small hill to find herself abruptly flying through empty air. The land had simply ended. She shot through empty space, trying desperately to orient herself before she'd flown too far.
Finally she managed to turn herself back around facing the way she'd come. She spotted what looked for all the world like a small island floating in the midst of a sea of sky. She grabbed at a thread, wrapped one end around a wrist, and flung the other back toward the land mass. Where the hell did he go?
She dropped back on the island in the sky and watched as the man-sized ‘gate began to swell to the point it could allow her team access walking side by side.
They emerged all at once. Raven was in the middle, both hands filled with 10mm firepower. Orcus squeezed through on one end, while Renee floated casually through the gate at the other. “Where is he?” Ben snarled. His clothing hung in tatters, his arms having lengthened and bulked up as he began to shift into his werewolf form. His face had sharpened, becoming more lupine, as his jaw began to shift up and out to form what looked to be the beginnings of a muzzle.
She shook her head, jerking her eyes away from the grotesque sight. “I don't know. He disappeared."
"Did you check over this hill?” Cecil asked, getting ready to dash that way.
"Don't!” she shouted. “Unless you want to run off the edge of the world, that is."
"Are you telling me this is the whole goddam world?” Loki asked, turning a slow circle. “You're kidding, right?"
"It's like an island floating in midair,” she snapped. “How else would you describe it?"
"Good point. So which way did he go?"
"Over that hill ... and then he disappeared."
"Maybe he had an invisibility spell handy. Renee? You picking up anything?"
She frowned prettily. “I'm getting a faint ... something. I can't tell if it's distance or interference. I can tell you one thing—this is the most barren place I've ever seen as far as life-signs are concerned. How's the mana situation?"
Jaz gave a quick glance and shrugged. “A little less active than Earth, but there are still quite a few threads available."
"That's good news, at least,” Raven muttered. “Something I just thought of that might be a problem."
"What's that?” Loki asked him.
"When and where does the sun come up here?"
The vampires exchanged glances. “Holy crap. We didn't even think of that.” Jaz felt vaguely guilty at the admission. The two vampires could well be in mortal danger here and she hadn't even given it a moment's consideration.
"No reason you would,” Renee said sympathetically, as if she were reading her mind. Probably is, Jaz thought. Or, rather, perhaps just reading the vibes she herself was broadcasting. She knew she had a problem with that. Not shielded well enough, or whatever.
Hardly the issue at hand here though. “Chaz—have you been able to keep up with these jumps? Can you get us home?"
He fiddled with the gadget in his hand for a moment, then looked up and nodded. “I think so."
"Well, I guess think is going to have to be good enough. Send the vampires home."
"Give me a second ... okay.” A second ‘gate sprang into being in their midst. “This will take you to our Earth. Don't be shocked if you don't end up in North America. I have to send you somewhere it's currently dark ... for your own safety."
"We'll manage. Sorry, guys,” Raven said. He took Renee's hand and stepped through.
The ‘gate dwindled to nothing and disappeared. “We don't need the vampires, do we?” Quickfingers suddenly materialized on Jaz's shoulders, where, she knew, he'd been lurking the whole time. It's hard to miss a forty pound spirit with his legs wrapped around the sides of your neck. “They're just a pain in the neck, right?” He giggled at his own joke.
He threw himself off and bounced across the sky-land in ten foot bounds. He reached the edge of the thing and paused, peering over the side. “Hey, boss. I think I see another island down there.” He pointed almost straight down.
"Really? How far away would you say it is?"
The imp shrugged. “I dunno. A couple of miles?"
"Easily within range of a transit spell.” Jaz grabbed a couple of threads, wove them together, and walked to the edge. She snapped the threads into a tube and sent the far end flying toward the other sky-land.
"Wait, boss. I'm thinking it might be farther than that. I think it looks closer because it's so much bigger than this one."
She modified the strands, commanding the far end to splay outward and creating a set of lenses—one on each side to turn the tube into a kind of telescope. She pulled the closer end to her eye and peered through. “Damn, you're right. That sky-land is much larger than this one. There's even a giant lake in the middle of it."
"Any sign of Thoth?” Loki queried.
"Not yet, but I'm still looking."
She scanned the other island from one end to the other. “I see a huge pyramid, a couple of ... ships sitting off the side of the island—in midair, by the way—and a herd of what look like horses by one end the lake."
"No sign of Thoth?"
"Nope. That doesn't mean much, though. He could be hiding in that forest on the—south?—side of the lake, or on one of those ships, or even in that pyramid."
"Or he could be hiding somewhere around here, or he could have ‘gated somewhere else entirely,” Ben snorted in disgust. “The bastard got away."
"I don't think so. Quickfingers—find Thoth."
The imp turned his grin on her and winked. He faded from view and disappeared.
* * * *
That bitch was nothing if not persistent. Thoth leaned against the cool wall of the pyramid-like structure and struggled to catch his breath. He was running out of ‘gate spells. Two more jumps and he'd have to take the time to weave more of them. That was assuming they gave him enough time.
He let out a shriek as forty pounds of pissed off imp materialized on top of his head. Quickfingers gave his fringe of hair a tug and giggled wildly. “Tag! You're it!"
Thoth flailed ineffectually at the creature perched on his head. “Dammit! Get away from me, you freak!"
Quickfingers pushed off, doing a perfect summersault in midair and landing feet first on the pyramid floor not five feet away. He stuck his tongue out and blew the immortal a raspberry. “You creep! You locked me in a wine bottle! And it wasn't even good wine. I hate you!"
Then he ran up and kicked Thoth in the shin. It was his very first act of overt violence and he found he rather liked it.
"Ow!” Thoth jumped up and down, holding his shin. “You're not even real!" he snarled. “Leave me alone!"
"Okay,” the imp said brightly. He vanished with a whoosh of displaced air. Thoth limped toward the pyramid entrance, swearing profusely. That creature was a menace. One day he'd come up with a way to kill it.
* * * *
The five strand transit tube took them to the top of the pyramid. Jaz grabbed and activated a windsprite spell. It snatched he
r up and flew her down toward the pyramid entrance just in time to see Thoth emerge. “Hey, you fucker! Stay there!"
He froze in place, staring up at her with a look of shock plastered on his face. Then he scrambled for a spell. Quickfingers popped in on top of him again and covered his eyes with his tiny hands. Thoth stumbled around for a minute, trying to pry the little spirit from his face. “Can't cast a spell if you can't see,” the creature tittered.
"Good job, Q ... keep him busy!"
A huge furry shape hurtled downward, impacting the ground a couple dozen yards away from the frantic Thoth. The imp clung to him like a burr in a Pomeranian's fur. Ben grinned wolfishly—being that's the only grin he could dial up in full man-wolf form—and lunged across the dusty gravel. One clawed hand wrapped itself around Thoth's ankle and pulled. The rogue immortal went over, smashing into the gravel with a great explosion of air as his breath fled his lungs.
"Oh, I'm sorry,” Ben huffed. “Did that hurt?"
Quickfingers rolled off and bounded to his feet. “We got him!"
"Think again,” Thoth muttered, snatching forth a spell and hurling it at the unsuspecting werewolf.
The force-bolt caught him dead center chest and literally picked him up and threw him straight into the sloping side of the pyramid.
Jaz released the ‘sprite and dropped to the ground next to Thoth, aiming a vicious kick at his ribcage. He rolled out of the way, clawing his way to a kneeling position. From somewhere in his clothes he produced a pistol, which he pointed at Jaz.
"And what the hell are you going to do with that?” she asked mockingly. “You can't kill me with a gun, you idiot."
"What if it has crystal bullets?” he replied in much the same tone.
She froze. At first she'd treated it as if it had just been a game, but it had just turned deadly serious. She held up a hand as the others came sliding down the pyramid. “You don't really have crystal bullets in that thing, do you?"
"Try me and find out,” he snarled back.
Ben picked himself off the ground and loped over, moving more like a gorilla than any sort of traditional image of a werewolf. He hunkered down next to Jaz, baring his teeth and growling menacingly. Orcus leaped the last several feet and landed by their side. He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders, glaring down at the immortal with undisguised loathing.
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