Her words bring my smile back, until I search the sky for the Beach of Mu.
My mouth falls open, and my feet refuse to take me any further. “Wow.”
The sand is floating near a dark hole in the sky, surrounded by a circle of light.
“It is a portal,” Maël says. She sounds a bit surprised.
“Of course.” I chuckle. “How did you think the beach got into your memory?”
She starts walking again, and I follow so hastily I almost trip.
“It could have teleported.”
I nod, my eyes glued to the light in the sky. “Yes, I hadn’t thought of that. But it didn’t.”
My heart goes in overdrive as we approach the portal. Inside, something is moving. Trying to escape maybe? Craving a bite of human flesh?
I suppress a shiver and come to a halt next to Maël under the gateway to who-knows-where.
“Now what?” I ask, my voice hoarse with unease. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
But it’s too late to change my mind, because the sand comes soaring down. The snake head smiles at me as if to say, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you’. The next moment, I’m floating. Further and further up I go, lifted by the grains of sand. Soon, Maël is hoisted up beside me. Inch by inch, we get closer to the dark portal.
“What are those things?” I ask, my voice trembling.
I can make out scaled animals the size of rats dashing along the edge of the blackness, dots of light escaping from their pointed snouts. Their short legs move so quickly you can barely see them. I’m glad they don’t seem to notice us, but getting closer to them makes me nervous.
“I think they are keeping the portal open,” Maël muses. “Look at the specks of light they spit out. They are all absorbed by the circle of light.”
So, they’re not going to eat us alive. That’s good to know.
Maël seems to read my mind. “Not every ugly thing is evil, Dante.”
I don’t respond, because suddenly we’re moving faster. It’s as if the portal is sucking us in. I can feel it pulling at my legs.
The blackness is now only inches from my nose. I squint in an attempt to make out anything other than the strange creatures and the sand swirling around me. But there’s only darkness. As soon as we’re pulled into it, coldness prickles my skin. Everything gets hazy for a minute, and all sounds are muffled, as if we pass through a large bubble.
Suddenly, I’m looking at myself. I try to stop moving, but I’m pushed closer and closer to my reflection.
“What’s happening?” I ask Maël hoarsely. “What is that? Some kind of shapeshifter?”
A tiny light flickers above us, and I can see Maël’s arm reaching out to a copy of hers. Her reflection does the same.
“No, don’t!” I call out, struggling to stay still myself.
Too late.
The ghost queen is yanked forward. Within seconds, she has merged with her copy. She blinks, shakes her head and flexes her fingers. Then she smiles at me. “There is nothing to worry about. These are our bodies. We are leaving my memory, which means we need our bodies back. Just step into yours.”
“Are you sure?” My voice trembles as I take in the Dante in front of me. There’s something strange about him. He’s me, only… empty. Does that mean Maël is right? Is it really my body? Or is it something dark getting ready to swallow me?
There’s no more time to think about it. I slide forward until our noses almost touch. No matter how much I want to close my eyes, I don’t. If this is an evil entity, I want it to know I’ll fight for my life until there’s no strength left in me.
I’m pulled off my feet. My breath is cut off, and for a moment, I hear two heartbeats instead of one. I struggle to free myself, but the pull is too strong. Shivers run through me like electricity. I clench my fists. Everything gets dark. Is it over? Did it kill me?
“Open your eyes,” Maël’s voice says.
I do and look down. Everything looks normal. I’m just me. Carefully, I run my fingers over my face. Nothing weird there.
Maël places a hand on my arm. “You are fine.”
I stay still and try to feel around inside myself, searching for something that doesn’t belong. Nothing moves. There’s only one heartbeat.
Slowly, I breathe out and nod.
The ghost queen smiles again. “Are you ready to continue?”
“Yes.”
She steps forward, and I follow.
A dull world awaits us on the other side of the portal. We step out onto a path of black grit.
“Any idea where we are?” I ask Maël.
She shakes her head.
The sand leaves us no time to find out what kind of world this is or to adjust to the cold climate and scarce light, taking off so fast it’s out of sight in a second.
“Wait!” I call out. “We can’t move that fast!”
My words echo in the emptiness, and I bite my lip. Maybe shouting wasn’t a very wise thing to do here.
A soft clicking awakens in the distance, followed by a high-pitched wail.
I rub my arms and blink until I can make out the outline of the path.
“Okay, let’s go,” I say quietly.
We walk along the winding path, the clicking behind us driving up our speed.
I can see a bit more now, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. On both sides of the dark path, there’s nothing. No buildings, streets or plants. Nothing moves, except for something that looks like thick, grayish snowflakes falling from the sky. They never touch the ground though, just hover in the air as if they’re waiting for something.
I drive up the pace some more.
“Do you see the Beach of Mu anywhere?” I whisper to Maël.
With her staff still pointed at the strange snowflakes, she turns her head to me. “No, I cannot see much here at all.”
My eyes search for the end of the path, but it seems to go on forever. “I feel like Dorothy entering Oz.”
“Who?” she whispers back.
“The girl from…” Behind us, the clicking gets louder. “Never mind.”
We urge our feet to go faster, almost running now. The grit snaps and crackles under our feet. The pieces seem to get larger the further we go. They shatter when we step on them, slowing us down more and more.
I slide down one particularly large piece that doesn’t break under my weight. Maël catches me just in time. The clicking is deafening now, and I risk a glance behind me.
A horde of beelike creatures is gaining on us fast. Their bellies give off a soft red glow, which illuminates the source of the noise: razor sharp fangs, like those of a stag beetle, slam together as they open and close their mouths hungrily. Transparent wings as large as a crow’s, with pulsing red veins, carry the guinea pig-sized bodies forward.
We’ll never make it in time to wherever the Beach of Mu has gone.
I conjure a lightning bolt in each hand. “Can you slow them down?”
Maël has already lifted her wand. The tip starts glowing as she mumbles the words of her spell.
The clicking grows more furious, as if the monsters know what we’re trying to do. Their wings beat twice as fast, propelling them closer to us at double the speed.
I lift my hands to release the bolts. Just before I can, a heavy weight lands on me, knocking me over.
The bolts splutter and die, and I scrape my hands on the grit when I try to break my fall.
I roll over to get rid of the clicking monster on top of me while I fumble for my athame.
A second body slams into me, making me drop my weapon. Not knowing what else to do, I cover my head with my arms and roll myself into a ball.
“Freeze them!” I yell, although I’m sure Maël won’t be able to hear me above the racket the creatures are making.
Something lifts my shirt and tickles my back while something else ruffles my hair. I nudge my power core again for more lightning w
hen I hear another sound. It’s that high-pitched wail again, but it doesn’t sound so fierce now. It’s more like a hesitant question.
Carefully, I lower my hands. Something slides along my leg, but it’s not a violent touch. It’s soft. As if it’s examining me. Red light shines above me, and I slowly look up.
One of the bee-monsters hovers just above my head. Its beetle-like head is tilted.
“Hello there,” I say softly.
Its belly shines brighter, and it lets out another inquisitive wail.
I try a small smile. “I’m not sure what you’re asking, but you don’t have to worry about us. We’re not here to hurt you. We’re just passing through.” I hope.
With a sudden jolt, it comes down and touches my face with its fangs.
It’s only now that I notice the clicking above me has stopped. All except this little fellow is silent.
“Maël?” I ask carefully. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she whispers back. “They are performing some kind of scan.”
“Could they be friendly?”
The beetle-bee in front of me grabs my shirt with its legs and pulls.
“Do you want me to get up?” I ask it.
It lets out another wail, and the light in its belly flickers.
When I push myself up, it lets out an excited shriek.
Slowly, I lift my hand. “You scared me, but you’re not so bad, are you?”
It nudges my hand, and I stroke its side. It feels cold and solid, like steel.
The rest of the horde circles above us, taking us in with interest. Some of them hover down for a closer look, and I pet a couple more.
“Did you see what the path is made of?” Maël asks. “It is not grit, like I thought it was.”
“It’s not?” I look down and swallow when I see it.
The red light from the beetle-bees shines down on the path. I shiver when I remember landing in that. Maël is right, it’s not grit at all. It’s a collection of shattered skulls. They’re too dark to be human, so I assume they’re from some kind of monstrous species. The skulls come in every size, from tiny as a mouse’s to bear-big. The ones we’re standing between aren’t all trampled yet. Most are still intact or just missing chunks.
I throw a ball of lightning in the direction we came from and see that the further away it goes, the smaller the pieces become. Before I can think about why that is, the beetle-bee pushes its fangs against my cheek again, asking for attention.
I stroke its belly and it clicks happily.
“They look ferocious, but I think they don’t see us as prey. They were probably hoping to find more creatures like the ones covering this path.”
I smile when I turn my head and see Maël petting two bees at once. “Those monsters they hunt must be even scarier than these guys. I wonder what they look like.”
Maël turns around and freezes. “I have a pretty good idea.”
CHAPTER 8
The beetle-bees start clicking like maniacs. The racket hurts my head, but I forget about it the instant my eyes fall on the monsters in front of us.
There are at least two dozen of them, only one leap away from us. I didn’t think it was possible, but they are uglier than anything I’ve seen so far. They look like black retrievers gone wrong. Really wrong. Their heads are covered in dented black metal. Shiny double spikes stick out horizontally where their ears should be, and the gray saliva dripping from their toothless mouths form soggy beards. Every drop that falls on the path burns away a piece of the skulls lying there. Thick, spiked legs support the bodies covered in half ripped-off flesh and black metal plates. They have something resembling boils on their backs that look like they will burst any second. Their eyes move around constantly in the sockets with a creepy grinding noise. That is the only sound they make, and it barely rises above the increasing racket the beetle-bees are producing.
They are waiting for something.
“Can you freeze them?” I whisper to Maël.
“No,” she answers, almost inaudibly. “My power does not work. I think my memories sucked too much energy out of me.”
With my hands behind my back, I conjure two balls of lightning. “Then I guess we’re fighting.”
The moment I throw the balls, the beetle-bees dive forward, crashing into the metal dogs like battering rams. The ground vibrates from the force of the collision. The clicking decreases, but the high tones coming from the dogs’ open mouths almost rip my eardrums.
My teeth crunch as I grind them together in agony.
More lightning flies from my hands, and the noise drops a couple of tones, making it more bearable. My aim is a bit off, because of the beetle-bees floating between us and the monsters, but I manage to hit a few more of them. They go down whining like broken robots.
I take out my Morningstar and swat halfheartedly at the bees blocking our path. “Move out of the way!”
They look back but stay where they are, clicking furiously at the monsters, as if to intimidate them.
“Why aren’t they fighting with their mates?” I wonder out loud.
One of the bees blocks the path of a dog monster that hauls itself at it, grabs the edge of the metal on its head and rips it off.
I turn away as half of the dog’s head comes off, and the body drops onto the path.
The bee soars back to its place between us and the fight, and suddenly it hits me. “Are they protecting us?” My voice sounds just as incredulous as I feel.
“I believe they are.” Maël sounds as unaffected as always. “We can turn back to the portal if you like?”
My mouth drops open. “What? No! The Beach of Mu was leading us somewhere.”
“It was leading us into the arms of a monster army,” she states coldly.
I rub the spot between my eyes. “I can’t believe that.”
“Then why did it leave us, Dante?”
Searching for an answer that makes sense, I stare in the distance behind the raging monsters. That’s when I see it.
I recognize the figure dressed in black immediately, even though she’s moving really fast.
My mouth curls up in a wide and relieved smile, and I whip out my athame and grab my Morningstar firmer to join the fight.
“I know why it left us,” I say to Maël, and I nod in the direction of the incoming whirlwind that contains my girlfriend. “It went to get help.”
I gently tap the beetle-bee in front of me on the side. “We want to fight.”
Both of them move out of the way, and as I dive into the battle, I hear Maël calling out behind me. It sounds like ‘this is not our battle to fight’, but I ignore her. I’m looking forward to bashing in some of these ugly skulls and adding the pieces to the path.
Vicky dashes in from the other side, with an equally murderous look on her beautiful face.
I keep my Morningstar from unraveling, so I can hit the metallic snouts from up close, while swinging my athame around. Flesh rips, and blood sprays all over me, but I don’t care. With every monster I slay, I get a step closer to Vicky.
There are only three more black dogs between us. I prepare to drive my Morningstar into the chin of the one looming over me, but two bees grab it and sink their fangs into its eyes. Since all the other dogs are kept occupied by the swarm of beetle-bees, I now have a moment to watch Vicky fight.
And that’s when I see something isn’t right. There’s a hungry glint in her eyes that doesn’t suit her, and she lashes out like a wild animal. When she bites a chunk out of her opponent’s throat, I try to back up. But I’m pressed in between the struggling bodies. Fangs scrape my arm, and I duck just in time to prevent a ripped-off bee’s head from hitting me in the face.
When I look up, Vicky is staring at me with bared, bloody teeth.
She’s having another fit.
“Listen to me, Vicky,” I plead. “I am not the enemy.” I try to sound soothing, but since I have to yell to be heard ove
r the noise of the raging battle, my words come out angry.
She licks her lips slowly, and for the first time, the gesture provokes tingles of fear instead of desire.
Her head jerks from left to right with sickening cracks as she scrutinizes me. It looks like she has a hard time deciding whether she should attack me or not.
“Remember who you are, Vicky,” I yell. “We’re on the same side. I love you!”
She opens her mouth, as if to say something, but all that comes out is a low gurgle. Blood trickles from her lips and down her chin.
Something hot breathes in my neck, and I duck, my Morningstar moving up to smash the monster behind me.
It anticipates my move and jumps back, only to leap at me the moment my Morningstar misses its head. From the corner of my eye, I see another black dog advancing from my left. I fold my fingers tighter around the hilt of my athame and use the momentum of the Morningstar to turn and hit my attackers at the same time. I’m halfway when I see Vicky launching herself at me with outstretched fingers. Her blue eyes have turned a shade of red. Hunger and murder shine through them.
Everything seems to slow down when I adjust the trajectory of my weapons to prevent hitting Vicky while I try to step sideways in time to avoid her as well as the two dogs.
I’m too slow, or maybe my enemies are just too fast for me. The spikes of my Morningstar scrape one of the dogs’ shoulders, and my athame misses the second dog by inches. They both keep coming, even more eager to rip me to pieces now. Meanwhile, Vicky opens her mouth, ready to sink her teeth into my neck. Unable to change my course again, I keep turning. As a last resort, I drop my weapons and conjure two lightning bolts. I don’t want to hurt Vicky, but I have to take out these two monsters before they get a chance to grab an arm or leg.
Suddenly, several things happen at the same time. One of the dogs lunges for my arm. Before I can hit it with my lightning, a beetle-bee flings itself at it and knocks it out of the way. Two people scream at me to duck. The first is Maël, who stabs the second dog in the side. It keels over, and its jaws snap shut next to my foot. When I turn my head, I see a ball of grease soaring through the air, undeniably from Charlie. It hits Vicky on the back of the head, and she turns with a beastly growl. Gisella somersaults toward her, slashing a couple of throats with her blades on the way. She lands perfectly on her feet, like the werecat that she is, and raises her blades, ready to fight Vicky.
The Fifth Portal: a supernatural urban fantasy action adventure (Cards of Death book 5) Page 5
