I forget everything around me. If a plated dog attacks me from behind now, I will be dead in seconds, but I can’t get myself to care. For a split second, I think Gisella is here to save me, but with her blades ready to slice up my girlfriend, I know I am wrong. All I can think is that I shouldn’t have trusted her. She’s not here to stop Vicky, she’s here to kill her. She is, after all, half evil witch, half werecat, a deadly combination. The red light from a passing beetle-bee is reflected in the metal of her weapons. With Vicky in almost solid battle mode, she will not survive a knife through the gut.
I leap forward, the remaining bolt in my hand fizzling out like faulty fireworks. “No!”
My mind freezes. Everything around me gets hazy, except for the spot where Vicky is standing. A sharp pain shoots through my ankle, but I ignore it. I don’t care about dying anymore. After all, what would life be worth without Vicky?
Seconds before I reach her, another grease ball hits the side of her head. She stumbles sideways, making me miss her and knock straight into Gisella.
As fighting dogs and bees jump out of our way, we land on the skull covered path. Gisella’s blades have turned back into hands during our fall, but as soon as we hit the ground, her weapons glint again. I try to catch my breath and wrap my head around what just happened. Gisella has already recovered. Her arms move up. If I don’t defend myself, she’ll cut off my head.
Somewhere close, Charlie’s voice rings out. “No!” He finally understands, like I do now, that his girlfriend is a traitor. She used him to get close to me and my Shield, waited for the perfect opportunity, and now she’s ready to end us. I know this, yet I find myself unable to move. My body feels light, empty. My brain doesn’t obey anymore, no matter how hard I yell at it to do something. Fire a lightning bolt at her, hit her with hail, flood the whole path with a tsunami. Anything is better than waiting for my final seconds to pass. But I can’t even bring myself to close my eyes.
My heartbeat stutters as Gisella stabs with all her force. There’s a loud yelp, and a heavy weight falls on us. Our heads bump painfully, and I breathe in sharply.
“Dante?” Gisella sounds panicked. “Dante! Are you okay?”
Another voice joins hers. I know it’s Charlie, but my head is spinning so fast, and my heartbeat is so loud that I can’t do anything except keep still.
The weight is lifted off me, but I don’t feel any better.
“Dante! Answer me!” Charlie’s voice changes volume with every word he says. Loud, soft, loud, soft. “Take care of Vicky,” he says, and wilt a jolt, I sit upright.
This can’t be happening. Charlie is trying to kill Vicky too?
“Wow, easy.” Two hands support my wobbling body. “We’ve got this, don’t worry.”
“No!” I shout, but it comes out hushed.
“Relax, the dogs are defeated. The few that are left are running away with their metallic tails between their legs.”
“Don’t kill her!” I moan, bile rising in my throat. I try to find Vicky and Gisella, but the world keeps tilting.
Charlie strokes my back. Maël walks up to us with a concerned look on her face.
“Why would we kill her?” Charlie asks. “Vicky is fine, Dante. Come on, take a deep breath. I think you hit your head pretty hard there. And you’re losing blood.”
“Gi-Gisella. She cut me.”
He lets out a sigh. “She did no such thing, Dante. She risked her life to save you and Vicky. That’s what she did.”
“But… but…”
“Now shut up and sit still so I can bandage your ankle.”
My eyes flick to my feet. There’s a large gash in my ankle. Blood oozes out of it.
“Lie down,” Vicky’s voice says next to me.
I turn my head and keel over. Everything spins, and fog rises before my eyes.
“Easy, babe.” Her voice sounds sweeter than ever. Her face appears above my head, and I squint to make it out. The smile on her lips is a concerned one, but the traces of blood on her face turn it into something creepy.
I blink until she gets clearer. “Are you okay?”
She snorts. “I almost killed you, and you’re asking if I’m okay? You must have bumped your head harder than I thought.”
Gisella kneels down next to Charlie, who is struggling to tie a piece of cloth around my ankle. “I’ve never been any good at this,” he huffs.
I try to make out Gisella’s face, but my vision is still blurred. Although the panic inside me has died, I’m not entirely sure I can trust her.
She pushes Charlie gently aside. “That’ll do. Let me take care of the rest.”
The rest?
Fear flutters in my chest. Vicky must sense it, because she takes my hand and squeezes it.
“Stop worrying. Gisella and Charlie just saved us both,” she whispers in my ear.
“It is the imbalance of the universe,” Maël says. “It has affected Dante too. His molecules are fighting inside him, sending him the wrong signals and magnifying his doubts.”
The werecat slash black witch places her hands on my ankle. “Let’s see if I can stop the bleeding through the bandage.”
A sharp sting shoots through my leg, and I yell. Three beetle-bees appear above my head, clicking hesitantly.
I try to raise a hand, but I need it to keep myself steady.
“It’s fine,” I pant, and I briefly close my eyes when the pain soars up to my neck. “It’s fine. She’s healing me.” I hope.
Gisella takes off the bandage again and admires her work. “Okay, the bleeding has stopped. You’d better lay down again. The wound is deep, so this is not going to be pleasant.”
As I put my head on Vicky’s lap, I meet her eyes. Please read my fear. Please make sure she doesn’t kill me.
She bends over me and kisses my forehead. “Don’t worry, I’m here.”
I give in to Gisella’s touch while thoughts of friends and enemies whirl through my head. This girl wouldn’t be the first to betray my trust. Paul and Simon did, after years of friendship. They were just waiting for the right time to get me out of the way. Waiting for instructions to kill me. How lucky that the Devil underestimated my powers. If he hadn’t, I would’ve been dead long before my powers even awoke.
An itchy feeling in my leg brings my thoughts to a sudden halt. Gisella has healed me once before, and I remember what it felt like, so I grit my teeth in preparation. The itch is accompanied by the sense of a hundred ants sinking their little teeth into my flesh. Soon, their number is multiplied by two, and it feels as if they’re marching right into my leg. The skin pulses while they feed on my flesh.
“Almost done,” Gisella says from somewhere far away.
Finally, the feeling of the little legs and teeth subsides. Since I hate to find my leg gone, I avoid looking at it. Instead, I look up at Vicky, who becomes clearer with every second that passes. She’s frowning at my leg, and I can’t help but smile. I know she’s watching it become visible again bit by bit.
“That’s an amazing gift you’ve got there, Gis,” she finally says, letting out her breath.
The werecat smiles, but her face is pale. “Thank you.”
Charlie rubs her back. “Are you alright?”
“Fine.” She swallows. “Like I said, it was a deep wound. It took a lot of energy to heal it.”
She swats Charlie’s hands away when he tries to help her up. “I’m fine.”
But she isn’t. She sways on her feet as much as I did a couple of minutes ago.
I look at my leg, which bears no scar or other sign of damage. Even the blood is gone.
The world is clear again, and the mist pulls up from my brain. Above us, the bees click happily. Several feet away, Maël is standing guard.
Guilt washes over me.
I get to my feet and pick up my weapons. “Thank you, Gisella. I’m sorry I doubted you.”
She shakes her head, leaning on Charlie to stay upright.
“It’s fine, I understand. My genes might suck, but I guess I’m stronger than them.”
I raise my hand for a high five. “You rock.”
She grins and hits my hand. “Thank you. How does your leg feel?”
I jump up and down and twist it in all directions. “As new.”
“So we’re ready to go home?” Vicky asks, handing a pack of cookies to Charlie, which he rips open immediately.
“Not quite.” I stare in the distance. “Maël and I were following a wave of sand.”
“The Beach of Mu,” the ghost queen adds, as if that explains everything.
“It was leading us somewhere when we bumped into these horrible dogs.” I gesture at the skulls under our feet.
Vicky taps her lips with her finger. “I don’t know what a Beach of Mu is, but a giant sand hand appeared through a portal. We followed it and it led us to you.”
“That must have been it.” I give my friends a grateful smile. “I’m so glad you guys are here. We were worried, and we couldn’t get back.” I wipe some dust off my pants and sleeves. “How did you find us anyway?”
Vicky shakes her body like a limbo dancer, and all the stains disappear. Her hair is no longer a mess, and her teeth are an innocent white again. I blink at the sudden change, but she acts as if nothing happened.
“Of course we couldn’t leave Darkwood Manor without you, so we tried the spell to call you to us, but it didn’t work,” she explains. “Thankfully, when we used the reversed spell, it did take us through the portal. It wasn’t hard to take Charlie and Gisella with us. Holding their hands was enough. The spell was somehow disturbed while we travelled through the portal though, but the sand was still with us to lead us to you.”
“Did you leave the others at home?” Maël asks, picking up her wand. “Or did something go wrong?”
“We all came,” Charlie answers with his mouth full of cookie. “But we were attacked when we arrived. We decided half of us should follow the sand, since it seemed in a hurry to lead us somewhere. That’s why D’Maeo, Jeep and Taylar stayed behind.”
My mouth falls open. “You left them in the middle of a fight?” I start walking. “We have to go help them!”
The three beetle-bees follow me immediately, clicking and buzzing. They seem eager to throw themselves into another battle, and when they call to the rest of the swarm, the others join us.
Vicky catches up with me. “I’m sure they’re fine, babe. And the sand is probably fighting with them. It turned back as soon as we reached you.”
“Then why haven’t they joined us already?” I ask tensely.
She picks up her pace, worry falling over her face. “That’s a good question.”
CHAPTER 9
Even though we go as fast as we can, the walk is long. Even the beetle-bees have ceased their clicking as the fog moves in on us. Every few seconds, I look back to check for more monster armies. Charlie, Gisella and Maël do the same.
Eventually, I break the uncomfortable silence. “How’s Mom doing?”
Vicky entwines her fingers with mine. “I think she’s okay, considering all the scary stuff she’s been told lately. You know how crazy the magical world is, and she found it all out in one day. That you and your Dad have powers, that magic and monsters exist and that Satan is trying to take over the world. She’s shocked but dealing with it.”
“Good.”
She raises her voice to get the attention of the others. “The fog is getting thicker. Something is moving inside it.”
We slow down, and I conjure two balls of lightning for more light.
“How much further is it?” I ask, without taking my eyes off the slivers of dust drifting closer.
“We should be there by now, right?” Vicky looks back at Gisella and Charlie, who have come to a halt.
Suddenly, Charlie’s eyes grow wide. I follow his gaze and grab Vicky’s arm when I see two eyes loom up in the fog.
In a reflex, I pull Vicky toward me and shoot a ball of lightning at the eyes. It hits an invisible wall and bounces back. Several skulls on the path explode, and we throw up our hands to shield our faces. Pieces of black dog rain down on us, but all my attention goes to the dark figure emerging from the mist.
It looks like a man, but there’s so much dust covering him and fog swirling around him that it’s hard to tell for sure. It could also be some kind of elemental or monster.
“What is that?” I whisper to Vicky, who is squinting into the mist as well.
She shakes her head.
The beetle-bees start clicking louder as more eyes blink into view. I reach for my weapons and try to find a better foothold on the path. My heartbeat goes up at the thought of having to fight more creatures like the black dogs.
The figure steps onto the path and shakes some of the dust off.
“Now!” I yell, and although none of this was planned, we all charge at the same time. Gisella with her blades held out in front of her, Charlie throwing his balls of gel, Maël swinging her staff like a kung fu master. Vicky and I are less elegant. We just charge in, yelling at the top of our lungs and lashing out with our weapons. The clicking of the beetle-bees above us is so deafening that at first I don’t recognize the voice shouting at us to stop. Then an arm covered in tattoos emerges from the fog and grabs my wrist. My Morningstar, already thrown, keeps going, and the momentum pulls us into the mist.
It takes a couple of seconds for my brain to put image and memory together. Meanwhile, I fight like a rabid dog to pull myself free.
“Ouch!” Finally, the hand around my wrist lets go. Then everything in my brain clicks together, and I freeze.
“Wait.”
No one responds. Of course they don’t. They’re all completely caught up in this fight, and every sound is lost in the racket the flying creatures are making.
I stand up straight and look around. I can’t see the path anymore. There’s nothing but mist around me, with the occasional red glow of a passing beetle-bee.
Something grabs my ankle, and I scream.
“It’s me! It’s me!” Jeep’s face appears inches from my nose, and I let out a sigh of relief.
“I’m so glad to see you.” I suppress the urge to hug him. Instead, I try to shake of the fog that’s clinging to my clothes. “I’m sorry I tried to kill you. The only thing we saw were eyes, and they just looked… scary.”
Jeep smirks at me. “I know, we can be pretty intimidating. Anyway,” he gestures at the impenetrable air, “we have to stop the others from trying to kill each other.”
“Hang on.” An idea sparks in my mind, and before I can think it through properly, I find myself reaching up. Something bumps into my hand and clicks angrily.
“It’s me!” I call out to it as I pull my arm back in.
The bee zooms down. I can’t make out its face, but I see the red glow from its belly.
“Stop attacking!” I yell. “These are our friends.”
It looks at me for a few seconds, then takes off.
“I’m not sure that worked,” Jeep says matter-of-factly.
“Try to reach the others,” I tell him, and after I pick up my Morningstar, we both go in different directions.
The clicking continues, feeding my fear that my friends are not only slaughtering each other, but are also still being chased by the beetle-bees.
“Guys!” I yell as loud as I can. “Stop fighting!”
It’s as if my voice bounces back from a solid wall.
I keep walking, my weapons tucked away again, and my arms outstretched. A shiver runs through me when I think of the possibility that we’re not alone here. Anything could jump us as long as this fog makes it impossible to even see our own hands.
Then my fingertips find something soft. Fabric. Hair.
“Hello?” I yell, wrapping my hand around a shoulder. “It’s me, Dante.”
A thunderous voice answers me. “I know who you are.”
A burning sensation starts in my fingers and spreads through the rest of my body, making me yelp and drop down onto my knees.
A giant shape looms over me. Fire explodes around its head, and I gasp for breath as I try to push myself back, away from it.
I have no doubt in my mind what this is, or rather who it is. I’ve seen and heard him before. He tortured my mother, threatened to kill me and everyone I love. But he’s supposed to be in Hell.
So how did Lucifer end up here, in front of me?
CHAPTER 10
Is this another premonition?
I’d like to convince myself of that, but when I check out my surroundings, I know it can’t be. I’m still in the same gray world, with thick fog clogging up my throat. What would be the odds of getting a premonition about the exact place I’m standing in?
“Dante Banner,” the voice thunders. “I’m glad I found you here.”
I scrunch up my nose. “I wish I could say the same.”
He roars with laughter. “You’re funny. I almost wish I didn’t have to crush your skull.”
Anger flares up inside me, pushing aside my fear. I haul myself to my feet and face Satan. He’s in his monstrous form, a dark, massive shape with orange eyes that bore into mine. Heat emanates from him with every breath he takes, and flames shoot out of his ears, which is why I can see him through the fog.
“You try, and I’ll destroy you,” I say. I concentrate on the lightning ball spinning in the palm of my hand to hide my fear.
“Oh, you cute little human.” Satan shakes his head. “You think you have a chance just because you saved some souls.”
I release the ball and conjure another. Lightning breaks up the fog between us, but the Devil keeps laughing. With a simple snap of his finger, he crumbles the ball to dust.
“Stop that for a minute, will you?” he says, almost friendly. “There’s not much time.”
The Fifth Portal: a supernatural urban fantasy action adventure (Cards of Death book 5) Page 6
