The Last Coven (The Tome of Bill Book 8)

by Rick Gualtieri

  The fuck?!

  Being petty felt good, but lately being right felt a lot less so.

  * * *

  The deafening squeal of metal crunching into more metal sounded from outside, and everyone stepped back as more flames – these the normal color – raced up from below where the copter had crashed.

  That stuff I’d said about our enemies wanting Grulg dead if they couldn’t rescue him had been complete bullshit – a fabrication I’d made up on the spot. Yet there was no denying it.

  The Magi had returned.

  Sadly, there wasn’t much time to contemplate this as the entire building began to shake. Cracks appeared along the walls and plaster fell from the ceiling.

  Shit!

  “We need to get out of here!” I yelled, stating the bleeding obvious. Yeah, I was useful like that.

  Colin’s men began to scramble. So too did the majority of the Draculas. Based on Alex’s reaction, or lack thereof, you’d have thought nothing particularly exciting had occurred.

  He pointed a lazy finger Colin’s way and the lackey froze in his tracks.

  “My lord?” he asked tentatively. “The Freewill is right. We must vacate the premises now.”

  Kudos for me. Pity I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy them buried under several tons of rubble if this building collapsed around us.

  Still, I found myself mesmerized by Alex’s calm demeanor.

  “Come on, Bill!” Sheila grabbed my arm and tried to pull me along. As much as I appreciated it, she also wasn’t the best person for a vampire to stand next to if the ceiling came down, but it was the thought that counted.

  I held up a finger and mouthed “one second” to her. I kind of wanted to see what Alex was up to.

  “Tell me, Prefect,” Alex said in a voice as calm as a summer day. “Did you, by any chance, properly ward this building prior to our arrival?”

  All the color drained out of Colin’s face, quite the feat for someone who had a tan rivaling that of the Pillsbury Doughboy.

  All at once, I understood. They weren’t here for Grulg. No. A far more appealing target were all sitting in the same unfortified room – the entirety of the First Coven, with us as a bonus.

  The mages couldn’t scry Sheila, that much I knew, but the floor Colin had cleared was big enough so that her power didn’t hold sway over it all. It was nothing more than dumb luck that she and I were here now.

  Just great. We were going to die, too, as little more than the bloody icing on Ib’s cake of death.

  Alex’s eyes continued to bore into Colin as more magical explosions rocked the building.

  Finally, the little weasel stammered, “Forgive me, my...”

  Before he could finish the sentence, Alex was across the room and standing in front of him. “Your incompetence grows tiresome,” he said softly, barely audible to my ears over the din of battle.

  With that, he backhanded Colin, the sound like a thunderclap even with what was going on outside. The greaseball went flying as if he’d been shot out of a cannon, slamming into one of the outer walls and then straight through it where I lost sight of him in the dust and smoke beyond.

  Ooh, bet that hurt.

  I turned to Sheila, a smile on my face. “Now we can go.”

  WATCHING THE WORLD BURN

  We ran for the exit. None too soon, as it felt like the place was shaking apart around us.

  “Once we’re outside,” she said as we practically flew down the stairs together, “get behind me. Not too close, though. I’m going to draw their fire.”

  Good idea, except for one little thing. “What if they have us surrounded?”

  “Then find a place to hide.”

  Even better.

  I didn’t like the idea of her wading into battle while I holed up like a pussy, but she was far better equipped to deal with magic users, especially now that she was back to her full capabilities. No way was I going to allow anyone to inject her with that Baal shit again, not if I could help it. Next time, we’d just take the long way.

  We reached the outside door, and Sheila cried out for me to duck. I hit the deck just as a beam of red-hot death lanced toward us. It fizzled harmlessly against her power, but there was no doubt she’d painted a big white target on herself. Whichever entity faith magic originated from really needed to be taught the value of subtlety.

  “Oh, crap,” she muttered. “We need to move now!”

  I threw the hood of my jacket over my head as she doused her aura. Multiple beams of energy struck the side of the building, the strategy obvious. If they couldn’t blast her, they’d try to bury her.

  Not on my watch.

  I whisked her off her feet and out the exit before heading left. Though it might’ve gotten me a kick to the nuts when this was over, the reality was she might be magic-proof, but I was a lot faster.

  I dove behind an abandoned car on the far side of the street just as the building began to crumble. It came down in a rumble of debris, the immediate area filling with smoke and dust.

  “Cover your mouth,” I said. “Pretty sure the Surgeon General would call this shit hazardous to your health.”

  I wasn’t too worried about getting asbestos-related cancer myself, but I did the same.

  The one upside to this debacle was the cloud created by the building’s destruction provided us with instant cover – from both the Magi and the sun. Despite the smoke, though, multiple beams of energy lanced out in all directions, telling me that death by daylight was currently the least of my concerns.

  A dark shape appeared out of the gloom close by, wielding a massive weapon. The vamp holding the minigun pointed it our way for a moment, then apparently recognized us. He turned away and started returning fire toward anywhere a spell seemed to come from.

  Soon, others joined him.

  “Stay down,” I warned Sheila, crouching protectively over her before realizing how ridiculous that was.

  However, she apparently wasn’t in on the joke, because she didn’t try to stop me. All she did was sit there with a wide-eyed look on her face. I guess I couldn’t blame her. It felt like we were in the middle of a blindfolded turkey shoot. Both sides fired wildly at where they presumed the enemy was, hitting mostly nothing in the process, but creating a shitload of crossfire.

  Bullets ricocheted off the asphalt just a few feet away and I cried out, “Shoot at them, numbnuts! Not us!”

  Fucking trigger-happy assholes.

  “We might need to...”

  To my surprise, Sheila shirked away from me, her eyes staring at where the gunfire had just hit.

  “Um, are you okay?” After another moment, I added, “Hey!” She finally focused on me. “Are you all right?”

  She gave me a shaky nod. “I’m fine.”

  “You didn’t get hit, did you?”

  “No, it’s just...”

  “Just what?” I recognized the look on her face. Hell, I knew it well. I’d seen it staring back from the mirror enough times. She was afraid. “Shit! You still have some of that crap in your bloodstream, don’t you?”

  “What crap?” she asked, still cowering.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I figured the last of that shit cocktail was out of your system.”

  “No. It’s gone. I can feel it. I’m...” She shrieked as the car we were hiding behind was peppered with bullets.

  Goddamned idiots. I swear the Dracs’ honor guard wouldn’t be happy until everything in a three-block radius looked like Swiss cheese. Right now, though, I had more pressing concerns, like an Icon who was apparently still going through withdrawal.

  Despite knowing how potentially disastrous it could be, I moved closer to her. She immediately threw her arms around me and buried her face in my shoulder.

  Comfort wasn’t my strong suit. Worse, with her holding on to me, I could feel my old insecurities bubble to the surface. All of a sudden, words, so freely flowing just moments ago, began to get all jumbled in my head. “Um, it’ll be ... okay. As so
on as that crap is out of your system you can...” Oh wow, she felt good pressed up against me. So warm, so alive.

  Focus, moron! Any second now, we could be hit with a Flamestrike. This was not the time to turn into a tongue-tied imbecile.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” she said, looking up at me, her eyes moist with fear. “This is me. That blood wore off.”

  “It can’t be. You ... well, you look terrified.”

  “I am,” she replied timidly.

  “Since when?”

  At that, her voice hardened. “Since that bastard Remington put a bullet into my head.”

  * * *

  Holy crap. I’d never considered that. I had gotten the ever living shit blasted out of me more times than I cared to admit. But it was more the overarching task of trying to save the world that frightened the shit out of me. Remington was dead, out of sight out of mind, as far as I was concerned.

  But the thing was, we’d thought Sheila had died in that incident, too. Now that I considered it, though, wouldn’t something like that be harder on an Icon? Hell, I was accustomed to losing. After a while, you brushed that shit off and moved on with your life. But an Icon’s entire power delved from their singular belief in themselves. It was a belief that empowered them up until the point of their death.

  But what if they didn’t die? What if an Icon was only badly injured? What could something like that do to their unflappable belief?

  “I didn’t know,” was all I could think to say.

  “I didn’t want you ... anyone to know,” she replied bitterly. “I’m not supposed to be like this, not now when the world is counting on me.”

  “So?”

  “What?”

  “So you’re scared? So what?” I said. “Trust me, I’m pretty sure the only way I can fall asleep most nights is by passing out from sheer exhaustion.”

  She pulled away from me, albeit not so far that she was exposed. “You don’t get it. I’m not supposed to be scared.”

  This was really not the time to be having this discussion. Almost as if to drive home the point, a beam of green flame lanced out from the smoke and hit our cover, melting the front half of the car into a slurry of steel and burning rubber. I almost pissed myself but, oddly enough, Sheila just kept glaring at me, ignoring what had happened. I didn’t begin to understand. I mean, guns freaked her out, but a fucking death ray was no big deal? On the flip side, if I started adding up all the things in my life that didn’t make any goddamned sense, I’d be working on it well into the next century.

  Fuck it! Sometimes you gotta be direct.

  I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye, hoping she didn’t pick that moment to ignite. “Who says you’re not supposed to be scared – heroes who died thousands of years ago? The Templar, maybe?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Well, here’s the thing. Fuck them all. You know what the difference between you and all of them is? That first group is dead and the rest are assholes. You’re neither.”

  And that was about as much of a pep talk as I was capable of giving.

  At first, I thought I’d pushed too hard and she was going to tell me to take my advice and go fuck myself with it, but then her gaze softened and a smile crept across her face. “Anyone ever tell you the world lost a great motivational speaker when you got bitten?”

  “Truthfully?” I replied with a laugh. “Not really.”

  * * *

  I didn’t know a lot about phobias, PTSD, breakdowns, or any of that shit. Psychology wasn’t one of my better subjects. Even so, I was pretty sure you didn’t shake stuff like that just because a doofus wearing stolen clothes told you to get over it. It was a long process to heal, preferably away from places being torn to shreds by a firefight.

  Thankfully, the vamps started to get their shit together. Fewer stray bullets came our way. Despite neither of us being at the top of this group’s friend list, they seemed to be smart enough to realize plugging their so-called allies with friendly fire wasn’t a winning strategy.

  I heard rubble shifting nearby, back toward the ruined building. The smoke had cleared just enough for me to see vague shapes digging their way out of the rubble. Not too surprising. Most of the Dracs weren’t going to die that easily. That was fine. Right then they were the lesser of evils, even if just barely.

  “Can you flare up?” I asked Sheila.

  She still had a wide-eyed look about her, but nodded.

  “Good. Do so after I step back. Draw fire from the mages. Maybe give the others a chance to take out a few so we can make a run for it.” Sue me for being a realist, but I didn’t have any delusions of winning this.

  “There will be no running. Not by us, anyway.”

  I turned toward the sound of the voice and saw Alex walking our way. His clothes were ripped and he was covered in dust, but he was very much alive. What a surprise.

  “They’re...”

  “Right where I want them, Freewill,” he replied. “Did you not stop to consider that I would have anticipated such a move?” Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone, somehow still intact. He pushed a few buttons on the number pad, then tossed it over his shoulder.

  Well, duh. I could have told him he wouldn’t get any reception. This whole section of town was a fucking disaster. It ... what the...?

  “Do you feel that?” Sheila asked.

  I did, a rumbling beneath my feet. That wasn’t all, though. Whatever was causing it was getting closer.

  Oh no, not them. Not now!

  COUNTERINTUITIVE ATTACK

  I stood amidst the rumbling with a look akin to terror on my face. Had Alex just called the Jahabich? Oh shit! Had Ib actually replaced him with one of them?!

  He stared back, one eyebrow raised, before finally saying, “If I were you, I would retreat to the sidewalk post haste.”

  The rumbling grew stronger, but rather than the street opening up beneath our feet and a horde of orange-eyed monsters spewing forth, I heard the throaty growl of engines – powerful and numerous.

  I looked toward where they seemed to be coming from, the exact opposite of where the magical forest lay, and began to make out large shapes in the gloom. They looked like...

  “No fucking way.”

  Sheila grabbed my arm. “I think he’s right, Bill. Maybe we should stand back a bit.”

  No shit on that, I considered, as the column of tanks advanced toward us.

  That’s when I remembered what Colin had said about the National Guard. Although, judging from Alex’s pimp-slap, Colin wasn’t the one responsible for this. No, this was too strategic in nature for that ass kisser. Alex had to know the risks flying in here, but he seemingly also had considered what was to be gained. They couldn’t lose Boston so easily without being seen as weak throughout the supernatural realm.

  And he’d known the perfect bait to set his trap with: he and his coven.

  The tanks rolled past us. A few took hits from errant magic, but the mages’ offensive had turned clumsy. I imagined our attackers were every bit as surprised as I’d been. But this time, I had the advantage of not being the target.

  “LEVEL THE FOREST AND EVERYTHING IN IT!!”

  This close, there was no need for radios or walkie-talkies. Alex was content to let his compulsion do the talking for him.

  Holy shit! I mean, I knew covens had dealings with the local police to keep annoyances such as murder investigations out of their hair, but I never imagined...

  Hah! That was on me, though. I should have. The Draculas controlled the entire fucking nation of Switzerland, for Christ’s sake. Not to mention I’d accidentally chowed down on one of the US Government’s Joint Chiefs of Staff during my trial.

  I’d thought Alex’s mad culling party a stupid decision, disastrous even. But maybe he didn’t need those troops after all. Sure, both sides had allies in the supernatural world, but whereas the Feet shunned technology, the Draculas embraced it. Tanks, planes, and guns were Alex’s
secret weapons all along. The entry of the Magi into the war had simply escalated his gambit.

  Whatever mages were LARPing around in the woods were fucked. Yeah, they were potent, but guns could be reloaded a lot faster than they could replenish their energy.

  One thing nearly all creatures of power had in common was runaway egos. The Magi had given the vamps a bloody nose by crushing the Boston complex. They were no doubt overconfident of an easy victory here, meaning I seriously doubted they expected a heavily armored mechanized division to bear down upon their wooded haven.

  Wait a second... “Shit!”

  “What’s wrong?” Sheila asked, then realization seemed to hit. “The woods!”

  “Tom and Sally,” I confirmed. “Gan too.”

  The three of them – well, okay, Sally and Gan at least – were survivors. Regardless, there was simply no way I could resume our mission without knowing if they were okay. It was stupid of me not to trust in them and pure idiocy to leave now, especially when we still didn’t have the information Grulg did. It was the height of naïvety to think Alex wouldn’t notice us running off and assume the worst.

  In short, just another day in my life.

  “Let’s go!”

  * * *

  This was a mistake, a stupid, stupid, stupid fucking mistake!

  It was easy to overtake the tanks. Once we got past them, though, it was like walking into some bizarre Terminator-esque future. Cannon fire on one side, death rays on the other.

  And once we entered the forest, there were falling trees to contend with, too. That would be just our luck, to dodge the worst the Magi and Draculas could throw at us only to get crushed by a falling maple.

  What an ending that would make for all the prophesies and proclamations. “The end of the world was nigh. The Icon and Freewill disappeared into the forest ... and then the next day, they were found dead under a log. The end. Now go the fuck to sleep, kids.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked as we both slipped past some thick foliage while explosions rang out all around us. We ducked beneath some cover, then got moving again once the debris raining down upon us had settled.