“Stay here,” Six said. “Don’t move. I’ll be back.”
She ran up the steps and onto the stage. It was a disaster area. The massive sets had been smashed into pieces. The few performers left were wandering around, dazed and bloodied. Six saw two bodies lying motionless amid the clutter of the broken scenery.
The monster had turned its attention to the arena filled with spectators. It had left the stage and was rampaging through the rows of seats, tearing at them with its claws. Because the audience had at first believed the creature to be part of the show, most had not gotten up and run away until it had leaped onto the arena floor and begun its assault. By then it had been too late for some of them.
Now they pushed and clawed at one another in their race for the exits. Six watched as the monster knocked half a dozen of them aside with one sweep of its claw. A small blond woman swatted at it with her designer handbag, and the beast struck her down with its tail. Two other women ran to her aid, trying to pull her to her feet. The creature roared at them, sending them screaming away in terror.
Six knew she had to do something. She was exhausted and growing weaker, but she was still a Garde, and she still had plenty of fight left in her.
She ran to the edge of the stage and jumped off, running towards the monster. It was heading for one of the exits.
When Six caught up with the thing, she leaped up onto its tail and climbed the ridge of its back. Sensing her presence, the beast stopped and tried to shake her off. But Six dug her fingers in between the scales that covered its massive body, lying flat against the thick plates and holding on as the monster attempted to dislodge her.
When it couldn’t shake her off, the monster decided to keep going. It headed for a doorway. Now several security guards had appeared, pointing pistols at the creature. Six heard the sound of shots. But the bullets did no damage, burying themselves in the heavy scales. The beast lumbered forward with barely a pause, crushing one guard beneath its feet and sending the other two scrambling to get out of its way. It pushed its head through the doorway; then with its massive shoulders tore a hole in the wall large enough to fit through. Six felt plaster and pieces of wood fall around her as she was carried out on the monster’s back.
The creature made its way inside the long tunnel that connected the arena to the hotel. It moved rapidly on all fours, its back nearly brushing the ceiling. Every so often it let out a piercing cry, as if it was calling to someone. Then Six heard an answering cry, and her heart froze. There was more than one.
She continued to move along the beast’s back, working her way up to its head and what she hoped was the most vulnerable part of its body, the eyes. The thing seemed to have forgotten she was there, and she hoped she could still catch it off guard and stop it—or at least slow it down—before it remembered her.
She reached the head and, holding on to the scales just behind the neck with her left hand, she used her right to draw out the knife she had fashioned from the shard of broken glass. She was inching forward, searching for a good angle from which to attack, when she heard the roar of the other creature. It was closer. The beast she was on paused, listening, and echoed it. Then it began tearing at the wall of the tunnel, making a hole. It was going outside.
Six couldn’t wait. Lifting the knife, she brought it down in the direction of the monster’s eye. She felt it connect with something, pause and then keep going. Warm fluid covered her hand. The creature screamed in pain and shook its head. Six felt herself slipping off, and let go of the knife so that she could push both hands into the scales and try to hang on.
The beast reared up, its head hitting the roof of the tunnel. It continued to thrash back and forth. Six was dangerously close to being crushed against the ceiling. She clung to the monster as best she could, but she felt her strength ebbing away with the effort. She made an attempt to claw her way to the head and retrieve her knife, but it would be impossible to move without being thrown off.
Then she heard the sound of something tearing at the wall beside her. A section of the tunnel tore away, and she saw a second monster looking in. Sitting on its back was Eleni. When the Mog saw her, she snarled. Then she raised her hand. Six saw a ball of fire appear. Then it flew at her like a small comet, a burning tail stretched out behind it.
Six rolled away, and the ball of flame struck the side of the monster she was on. Its scales seemed to protect it from the worst of the heat, yet it shied away and gave an irritated shriek. Then a second one came, and a third. The last one struck Six in the shoulder. Searing pain bit into her as it ate through the leather of her costume and licked at her skin, and she cried out. Her grip faltered, and she felt herself falling. She scrabbled at the creature’s scales, trying to hang on.
The monster Eleni was riding pushed its way in, nosing the first one out of the way. From her position astride its back, Eleni looked at Six, clinging to the other creature, and smiled cruelly.
“Magdalena has outdone herself, don’t you think?” she said, lifting her hand and showing Six the fireball that was swirling there.
So, Six thought, they had succeeded in giving Eleni a Legacy after all. Meanwhile, she had none to fight back with. Six’s stomach burned with fury and pain as she slowly pulled herself up the back of her monster. Eleni watched, obviously amused.
“It seems unfair to kill you when you have no way of defending yourself,” the Mog said. “Plus, Magdalena needs you alive to harvest the parasite inside of you so she can give your Legacies to me.” She cocked her head. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you a little.”
She hurled another fireball at Six. Drawing on the last of her strength, Six dug her fingertips into the scales of the creature’s back and dragged herself up to its shoulder. Her burned arm screaming in agony, she grabbed for the end of her knife, still embedded in the beast’s eye, and jerked it to the side.
The monster whirled, turning to face Eleni as it sought to wrench the knife free. Six pulled back on the hilt, treating it like a steering mechanism and using the pain it inflicted to make the beast go where she wanted it to. She gave it another pull and the creature turned again, then started moving quickly back to the arena.
Eleni gave chase, following Six as her monster reentered the arena and headed towards the stage. Six still didn’t know what she was going to do, but she felt better not being trapped in the tunnel. Here there was more space, more options.
Eleni was attempting to hit Six with fireballs, but she succeeded only in striking the monster, annoying it and causing it to run more quickly. Several of her throws struck the debris scattered over the floor, starting small fires that immediately began to spread. This seemed to confuse and frighten the creatures, who darted away from the flames.
When her beast neared the stage, Six jumped. She landed on her feet, rolling to get out of the way as the creature, now enraged from the pain and its fear of the fire, turned its head and tried to bite her with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Six wished she’d been able to pull the knife from its eye, as she now had no weapon at all.
Then she spied something on the floor. It was one of the staffs that had been part of the costumes for the show. About six feet long, it was made of metal and had been intended for use during one of the acts in which six acrobats performed stunts using the poles to launch themselves into the air. Six picked it up.
Her injured shoulder burned, but she fought the pain as she crouched, gauging the distance between Eleni and herself. The Mog was urging her monster forward, screaming at it in her language. Fireballs shot from her hand as quickly as she could form them. Six swatted them away with the staff, shattering them into bursts of sparks.
She swayed on her feet, suddenly too exhausted to move. As if sensing her weakness, the parasite in her head seemed to grow stronger. She felt her thoughts begin to break apart, and she had trouble concentrating on what she needed to do. It felt like the best idea in the world to just give up, to set down the staff and let Eleni run her over.
&nb
sp; Then she pictured Sam’s face. She wasn’t going to give up a chance to see him again. Not for a Mog. Not for anyone. And she was damn sure going to take Eleni out first.
Six reached deep, pushing down through the pain in her head, in her shoulder, in the rest of her body. She crouched, looking Eleni right in the eyes. Then she sprinted. Her legs pumped with the last of the strength in her. She held the steel staff out. When she was a dozen feet from Eleni and the charging monster, she planted the pole and swung herself up and into the air.
The monster opened its jaws to catch her, but she sailed past it and connected with the Mog. Her feet hit Eleni in the chest, knocking her backwards. Eleni fell, landing on the arena floor. Six fell beside her, the wind knocked out of her.
Neither of them moved for a moment. Then Eleni was on her feet. She called to the retreating monster, which turned and came towards them. Then she brought her attention back to Six and kicked her in the side. Six grabbed the Mog’s leg and pulled, throwing Eleni off-balance. Eleni stumbled and fell again. Six rolled on top of her, pinning her down. She gripped Eleni’s wrists and held her arms down.
“Try to make a fireball now,” she said.
Eleni thrust her hips up, trying to throw Six off. Six dug her knees into the Mog’s sides as hard as she could. She leaned forward, using her weight to press Eleni into the floor.
“You’ll have to try harder than that,” Six said.
Eleni turned her head and shouted something to the approaching beast. It opened its mouth and screeched.
“If it runs over us, it’ll kill you, too,” Six said.
“Then we die together,” said Eleni.
The enormous creature was bearing down on them. Six stared into Eleni’s face, deciding what to do. She knew she was too weak to fight her much longer, especially now that the Mog had a Legacy. If she was going to die anyway, maybe it was better to do it taking Eleni with her. At least then there would be one less thing for Nine and the others to worry about when they showed up.
She could feel Eleni struggling to throw her off. The Mog was scared. This made Six even more determined not to let her up. Let her feel what it’s like to stare death down, she thought.
The monster was almost on them. Six could feel each thunderous step it took. The smoke from the growing fires stung her eyes, and the heat was increasing around them.
When there were just seconds left, Eleni screamed and tried one last time to get out from under Six and save herself. Six almost relented. Then she felt a powerful push, like a great gust of wind. Smoke and flames streaked around her. The charging beast was shoved sideways, rolling over on itself with a grunt of surprise, its limbs flailing. Caught up in the blast of air, Six was tugged from atop the Mog and pulled along the floor.
When she came to a stop, she was on her back. She sat up, looking for the source of the force. The monster still lay on its side, unmoving but bellowing in pain. Six realized then that one of the metal staffs was sticking out of its chest. She looked for the second creature, but couldn’t see much through the smoke and flames. She also couldn’t see where Eleni was. She had disappeared.
Then a figure emerged from the inferno.
“I see you got some new pets,” Nine said.
“They followed me home,” Six said. “Can we keep them?”
“Okay,” said Nine, kneeling down beside her. “But you’re responsible for their litter boxes.”
Six laughed. It hurt. She coughed.
“I thought you told Lexa you were fine,” said Nine.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” Six said. She tried to turn her head. “Where’s the Mog?”
Nine looked around. “Gone,” he said. “Probably ran off when she saw me coming.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Six said, coughing again.
“We need to get you out of here,” Nine said, sliding his hands under her and lifting her up.
“You don’t have to carry me,” Six said. “I can walk.”
But she couldn’t. Now that she was no longer alone, her body finally demanded rest. She gave in, closing her eyes and letting exhaustion sweep over her. All her worries—Eleni, the monsters, Sam, the parasite—retreated as she shut down. It felt as if she was falling into thick blackness. She surrendered, her head falling against Nine’s chest, and the world went dark.
CHAPTER FIVE
NEMO
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
NEMO HEARD THE FLIES BEFORE SHE SAW THEM.
She and Max were standing in the lobby of the Saturn Hotel, where Nine had told them to wait while he investigated what was happening in the tunnel connecting the hotel to the adjacent arena. Judging from the throngs of panicked people running through the lobby from that direction, Nemo guessed that whatever it was, it was bad. Several people had stumbled through covered in blood, and she’d heard the word “monster” used more than a few times.
The hotel staff didn’t seem to know what to do. A couple of security guards had come through, heading in the direction of the screaming, but hadn’t returned. The desk clerks were huddled behind the counter, looking at one another with dazed expressions as frenzied guests demanded answers.
“Looks like we got here just at the right time,” Nemo remarked.
“Or the wrong one,” said Max. “Do you hear those roars?”
Of course Nemo heard them. They seemed a lot like the roars of the monsters Magdalena had let loose in the bunker. Nemo had no doubt these sounds were coming from something even worse. Part of her wanted to go see for herself, but another part—she liked to think it was the more cautious part, and not the more fearful part—told her to stay where she was and wait for Nine to come back.
That’s when the buzzing became impossible to ignore. At first, she had thought the sound had something to do with all the commotion in the tunnel. Now she realized that it was coming from inside the hotel. And it was getting louder.
“What is that?” she asked, looking around.
The elevator doors at one end of the lobby opened and the swarm blasted into the room, a black cloud that seemed to explode, filling the air with the incessant hum of wings. Walking out of the elevator after the flies was Seamus. He strode into the lobby with his hands held up, magician-like, an expression of sadistic joy on his face as he watched people trying to swat away the insects he’d called together to form his army.
When he saw Nemo and Max standing there, his expression changed. He scowled. Then he moved his hands, pointing them at his former friends. The flies coalesced into a smaller ball and barreled towards Nemo and Max like a cannonball. Instinctively, Max and Nemo raised their hands and formed a telekinetic barrier. The flies struck it, many of them falling to the floor dead. The rest broke apart, swirling off to regroup under Seamus’s orders.
“I’m getting better at this,” Max said, grinning.
Seamus attacked again, this time forcing the flies to make several different balls. Nemo and Max turned in circles, trying to deflect all of them, but there were too many to fight simultaneously. Within seconds Nemo found herself at the center of a buzzing cyclone, with flies crawling over her face. Their tiny wings and legs scratched at her lips and eyes. She swatted at them, feeling them crush beneath her fingers. The sensation was almost worse than the actual attack, and yet the awfulness of it was enough to make her want to run from the hotel.
Which was exactly what Seamus wanted. Only when Nemo was able to get close to the lobby doors could she see that something worse awaited her if she left, as many of the guests had discovered. Outside, the real monsters were waiting. Three huge dinosaur-like creatures were in the street in front of the Saturn Hotel. People who had run out there trying to get away from one horror were now confronted with a worse one, as the things were blocking their escape. Dozens of people stood in frightened knots as the monsters circled them, seeming to herd them.
Nemo didn’t know what to do. Wiping more flies away from her eyes, she turned back to see what Max was doing. Seconds later, the flie
s lifted away from her face and disappeared. Nemo shuddered, wiping the few remaining ones off her. She didn’t know why the flies had given up, but she was relieved that they had. She scanned the lobby, looking for Max.
She spied him on the floor, on top of Seamus. They were fighting. Max appeared to have the upper hand, as he was straddling Seamus’s chest and punching him in the face. Seamus was blocking the blows with his hands and attempting to throw Max off. At first Nemo wondered why Max had resorted to fighting Seamus physically. Then she realized that the surprise and distraction were likely what had stopped Seamus from using his insect telepathy, at least temporarily.
She ran over to where the boys were fighting, determined to help Max subdue Seamus. But before she could get there, something hit the ground nearby and exploded, startling her. She stopped and looked around. On the other side of the lobby, near the check-in desk, stood one of the boys she’d encountered in Utah. Boomer. He was dressed in the same black clothes, and watched her with the same peculiar expression of disinterest that she remembered from before.
Boomer picked something up from the counter, a glass paperweight shaped like the planet Saturn. Hefting it in his hand, he held it out in front of him as it began to glow, first a pale yellow and then a fiery orange. He had turned it into an explosive device.
He threw it. But this time Nemo was ready. She reached out with her telepathy, grabbing the orb and hurling it back at Boomer. His expression changed from one of bored indifference to one of fear as he saw his own missile coming at him. Just in time, he ducked, and it hit the wall behind him, exploding in a shower of sparks that sent Boomer falling to the ground, his arms over his head.
Nemo used the distraction to cover the distance between her and the boys. The momentum of that skirmish had changed. Seamus, bigger than Max, had managed to get out from underneath him. Now they were grappling like wrestlers, Seamus’s arms around Max’s middle. Then Max threw his head back, slamming it into Seamus’s nose. Blood spurted and Seamus let go, bringing his hands to his face and swearing forcefully.
The Legacy Chronicles: Killing Giants Page 4
