by Amy Cross
I wait for a reply, and I can tell she's trying. There are tears in her eyes now, and it's tempting to believe that I've finally broken her spirit.
“I believe your brother is still alive,” I continue. “Not for long, but... I'll get to him once I'm done with you. If I have any venom left, that is. There's a distinct possibility that I'll empty myself into you.” I take a step toward her. “I've dreamed about this moment, you know. About digging my fangs into your chest and pumping hot venom directly into your heart. I could have done it long ago, I could have done it when we first met, back in that hospital room, but now I'm glad I was patient. It's going to feel so much better killing you here, in the corridors of Gothos as the old house collapses.” I can't help smiling as my venom sacs start throbbing. “I am going to fill you up, Abby Hart, and watch you burn.”
“Do you really think you'll get what you want?” she asks. “My father hid Karakh from you, he -”
“We already found Karakh,” I reply, interrupting her.
“Liar!” she shouts.
“Look into my eyes and you'll see that I'm not bluffing.” I continue. “It was hidden well, but Skellig and his brethren were able to locate our great, lost palace. Once the vampires are dead and Gothos has fallen to dust, we're going to march to our home and then finally my father, the great spider lord of Karakh, will return from his prison in the void.” Yet again, I can't help but smile; she isn't even accusing me of lying this time, which means she knows the war is lost. “I suppose you had a similar dream once,” I add. “You thought the great vampire empire could rise again. Sorry to knock that one to the curb, but your time has been and gone.” I step closer to her, as I feel blood leaking from the wound on my shoulder. The pain is still there, but it doesn't bother me; if anything, it pushes me onward. “Don't you want to go first?” I whisper, trying to tempt her. “What's wrong, are you embarrassed to fight in public? Maybe we should get a room...”
Suddenly she lunges at me, pushing me against the wall and biting down hard into my already-wounded shoulder. The pain takes me by surprise, but I quickly dip my shoulder away and then slam my head into hers with enough force to send her staggering back. Before she can react, I grab her by the shoulders and swing her around, sending her crashing through one of the walls and into a nearby room. I step through after her, just as she starts scrambling back onto her feet. Still, I can tell I've already winded her.
“Do you think the ghosts of Gothos can see you now?” I ask, stepping toward her and smiling as she instinctively takes a step back. “How many are there by now? Your whole family is just a collection of ghosts, isn't it? Do you think Mommy and Daddy are going to watch you die from the shadows?”
“You don't know anything about my family,” she sneers.
“Gothos was always kept so safe, wasn't it?” I continue, taking another step closer. “No matter what else happened to your miserable species, you always told yourselves that everything would be fine so long as Gothos remained standing, so long as you could scurry back here to lick your wounds and plot revenge. Well, guess what? As of tonight, Gothos falls. The whole house, everything, and it takes your pathetic civilization with it. I'm almost tempted to leave a few of you alive, scrabbling through the mud, so I can watch your pathetic attempts to regroup.” I reach out and grab her by the throat. “Almost.”
She tries to push me away, but I squeeze tight and force her down onto her knees, cutting off her airway.
“How many times have we fought, Abby?” I ask, smiling as she struggles for air. “There was that time in the hospital room, and the time at Keller's house in New York... I handed your ass to you both times, and both times I held back from killing you. I have to admit, when I saw you at Jagadoon, I actually wondered whether you could be trained up so that you'd become a worthy adversary. I guess that was a little too much to hope for, though, wasn't it? You could never be as strong as me.”
She struggles to reply, but only gasps can escape from her throat.
“I just wish I could take longer on this,” I continue, leaning closer. “You have no idea how many ideas I've got for torturing you, how many inventive ways I could make you suffer. I've imagined hurting every inch of your body, and then kissing every inch better so I can do it all over again. I've spent so many happy hours at night, when I should be sleeping, thinking about what I could do to make you scream.” Staring into her eyes, I can see that she's in danger of losing consciousness already, so I relax my grip on her throat just a little. I want her to suffer so much more before she dies. “The crazy thing is, in another life I think we could have been friends. Maybe the best of friends, even. Maybe the best possible friends.” I pause, feeling her hot, gasping breath on my face. “After you're dead and I'm in the throne room at Karakh,” I whisper, leaning closer until my lips are almost touching hers, “I promise I'll raise a toast to your memory, and to all those unfulfilled possibilities that -”
Suddenly she lunges at me, catching me by surprise and knocking me back. She lands on top of me and cries out with rage as she slams her fists against my face; again, I'm momentarily startled, not only by her primal anger but also by the feeling of my left cheekbone cracking open. I try to push her off but she seems to have gained some fresh wave of strength and for a moment I'm powerless to stop her as she rains punch after punch down against my face. Then she rolls off me and pulls me over, dragging me to the window and smashing my head through the glass before slamming my neck down against one of the broken shards.
I let out a gasp as I feel glass digging through my throat. She twists my head, as if she's trying to tear it straight off, but I manage to kick back at her and lift myself up, sliding the glass out of my neck and then turning just as she comes at me again.
She hits me in the chest, knocking me against the wall.
“I'm flattered,” I hiss into her ear as she leans closer. “You couldn't hate me so much if you didn't really like me!”
I try to push her away, but once again she seems to have found a hidden reserve of strength from somewhere, and now she's pressing me back even harder. I let out a grunt of pain as I try to force her off, and for the first time I start to wonder whether she might yet have enough power to actually...
No.
No, that's a ridiculous thought.
Screaming, I throw all my weight against her, landing on top of her as we topple to the ground. All around us, the walls of the house are shuddering and creaking, as if Gothos itself is about to collapse, but I'm not going to stop, not now that I'm so close to ending Abby's life. She reaches up to me, opening her mouth wide and hissing as she reveals her sharp fangs, and for a moment I genuinely struggle to pull back as she tries to bite me.
“Is that all you've got?” I gasp, as she leans even closer. I feel her teeth dragging against my skin, but she can't quite sink them into me.
She reaches around and grabs my shoulders, trying to pull me closer.
“You're forgetting something,” I stammer, straining every sinew as I feel my body being pressed against hers, and as she tries once again to bite me. “You vampires are such predictable creatures,” I continue. “You always keep your teeth in such obvious places.”
Letting out a cry of pain, I lean my head back and push my fangs out through the slit in my belly, immediately burying them deep into Abby's gut and biting hard. I feel her whole body tense with shock as my fangs – larger and sharper than anything she possesses – gouge through her flesh, ripping into her intestines and then through her kidneys and bladder until I reach her crotch. With every fresh bite, I scoop out a little more of her meat.
Tilting my human face even further back, I take a moment to savor the sensation of digging myself deeper into my enemy. My venom sacs are pulsating, throbbing with the need for release, but after waiting so long I'm almost scared to let myself enjoy this.
Almost.
“Here comes the venom,” I whisper, with a sense of anticipation in my chest as the house creaks all around us. “
Are you ready? Once I start releasing it into your body, it'll find its way to your heart and then...” I lean closer, breathing in every moment of her final struggle. I can feel her hot, gasping breath against my skin. The sacs in my abdomen are pounding now, ready to burst, but I want to enjoy this moment. “In some ways, I'll actually miss you.”
With that, I give her a quick kiss on the cheek before taking another bite with the fangs that are reaching out through my belly. As I rip through her belly and crotch, I feel my venom sacs pulsating with pleasure, and I try to hold them back for just a few more seconds. Finally, however, I'm overcome by a powerful shudder that loosens all control of my body, and the sacs seems to take on a life of their own, pumping the thick black poison out of my body with such force that it's almost painful, entering her and filling her up. At the same time, she finally manages to bite down against my neck and for a moment we're locked together, each using the last of our strength to tear the other apart.
Suddenly the entire floor collapses beneath us, sending us crashing down so abruptly that we fall apart. I slam hard into a pile of masonry, and I immediately feel my back shatter as I tip back and slide down through a pile of brick-dust and smoke. Letting out a cry of pain, I reach down to the fangs that are still protruding from my belly, and I feel hot, acidic venom still pumping futilely onto my own flesh.
My back is already healing, but the pain is intense.
As more pieces of the ceiling come down all around us, I sit up, only for one of the nearby walls to collapse and land on top of me. I'm knocked down and crushed by a huge section of stone, but I manage to push it aside and force myself up. Taking a step forward, I struggle to see anything at all as dust fills the air, although there's a hint of fire in the distance, which must mean that Skellig and the others have begun to burn the place down. For them, this battle is about destroying a species, but for me it's much more important. For me, right now, it's all about Abby Hart.
“Where are you?” I shout, with my fangs still poking out from my belly, twitching in readiness. I still have a little more venom for her. “Don't be such a coward, Abby! Come and face me!”
I stumble over more rubble, desperately looking around for some hint of her. We fell apart while I was still pumping venom into her body, but I have no idea how much actually entered her and how much was spilled. Losing my footing, I slip down a pile of broken stones, landing hard at the bottom and feeling a sharp pain in my back. Climbing up again, I start pulling pieces of masonry aside. If Abby is buried somewhere under here, I'm damn well going to find her, but several minutes pass as I search and finally I realize that there's no sign of her at all. There's no way she'd run, not from a final showdown with me, but it's as if she somehow disappeared just as we were falling.
“Abby Hart!” I scream, unable to control my anger any longer. “Face me! I deserve to see you die!”
“She's already dead,” a voice says suddenly.
Turning, I see Skellig standing nearby.
“They're all dead,” he continues. “We've finished our job here.”
“I want to see her corpse!” I sneer. My venom sacs have become a little calmer, but they're still bulging with fresh venom. Reaching up, I put a hand on the side of my neck, and for the first time I feel a flash of pain from the spot where Abby bit me. My fingertips run against the two puncture marks, although I doubt she got more than a few drops of blood out.
“Listen for her soul,” Skellig continues. “Try to sense her. There's no vampire life left in this place at all. Abby, her brother Jonathan, Absalom, all the other vampires who stood against us... Their hearts are cold.”
I turn and look around at the ruins, and after a moment I realize that he's right. If there was even a trace of life, I'd be able to feel it, but there's nothing.
She's gone.
I killed her.
I didn't get to hold her lifeless body in my arms, or to torture her, but...
Abby Hart is dead.
“We must leave this place now,” Skellig continues, as I stumble down the pile of rubble to join him. My fangs are slowly retracting into the slit in my belly, their job done now. “The house is burning, and soon -”
Suddenly there's a loud creaking sound from all around us. I turn, but there's no sign of anyone.
“Just the last dying whimpers of an ancient building,” Skellig explains. “We have confirmation now that Karakh has been located, and it's not too far from here. If we set off now, we can get there within two nights and then your father can be brought back through from the other side of the void.” He smiles. “We won, Emilia. The vampires are no more, Gothos has been destroyed, and now the spider empire can be resurrected at Karakh in all its glory.”
I take one final look around at all the debris before turning to him. My body is trembling, and I can't quite believe what I'm hearing. “We won?” I whisper, as a wave of shock hits me. It's as if somehow, after struggling for so long, I'm not ready for this moment. “After everything that happened... It's over? She's... She's gone?”
Reaching out, he takes my hand and leads me to the broken wall, then out into the old garden where the remains of our army await their next command. Spotting scores of huge spiders, along with many in human form, I realize that we barely suffered any casualties at all. When I turn back to look at Gothos, I'm shocked to see that there's little more left now than a few broken walls and a pile of rubble, while flames burn in several patches. I was so adamant the home of the vampires would be reduced to dust, and now it's happening before my eyes. I watch as the final walls come crashing down.
“To Karakh,” Skellig whispers into my ear. “We must seal this victory.”
“To Karakh,” I reply, turning to him, feeling a rush of pure joy in my chest as tears start welling in my eyes. “Home.”
Part Seven
The Fall of the House of Gothos II
Abby Hart
When I open my eyes, there's nothing ahead of me except cold, empty darkness.
There's something behind me, though. I can hear slow, heavy footsteps, as if something is dragging itself closer. A moment later I feel pressure on my shoulder, and I turn to see a bony hand resting at the side of my neck.
Death.
Death itself is -
***
Letting out a cry of shock, I open my eyes and sit up, gasping desperately for breath. I turn, convinced that I'll find Death nearby, but after a couple of seconds I see only one person: burned and bloodied,with thick, searing wounds on his bare flesh, the figure is instantly familiar, and for a fraction of a second it's almost as if my father has returned. It takes a moment longer before I realize my mistake.
“Jonathan?” I whisper, shocked by his appearance. “What...”
“I fought,” he replies, still a little breathless. “The anger I thought I could never feel... It was there after all.”
I pull away and turn to look around, but all I see is a pile of ash and dust resting under the vast night sky.
“Where are we?” I stammer, trying to get to my feet but immediately feeling a sharp pain in my gut. Reaching down, I feel that the flesh between the bottom of my ribcage and my crotch has been torn apart, although the healing process has already begun. The edges of the flesh have been seared, however, as if some kind of dark acid splashed onto me. I definitely got some of Emilia's venom in my body, but not enough to overwhelm me or reach my heart. “Where are we?” I ask again, turning to my brother.
“How much do you remember?” he asks.
“Where are we?” I ask yet again, trying not to panic. “We're on the plains of Gothos somewhere, but -” I continue to look around, trying to spot the house in the distance. “Where is it?”
“Gothos is gone, Abby.”
“No! Where is it? Why did you bring me away?”
“I didn't.”
“Then where is it?” I shout, turning to him.
“Look at your feet.”
I stare at him for a moment, struggling to unde
rstand what he means, but then I look down and see that my feet are buried deep in warm ash.
“Gothos burned,” he continues. “The whole thing is gone now.”
I shake my head, unwilling to believe what he's saying even though I can already tell deep down that it's true.
“The house saved us,” he explains. “At the very last moment... I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but... Abby, was the house alive?”
“Alive?”
“When the walls came down,” he continues, “there were huge bones in some of them. Those bones wrapped us up and pulled us deep underground, as if they were trying to keep us safe while everything else burned. We were down there in the dark for... I don't know, it felt like days, but it was probably just a few hours. Then we were lifted back to the surface and the flames had died out, and all the spiders had left. I know this sounds crazy, but it really felt as if the house held us close to protect us.”
“The Book of Gothos said that...” Pausing for a moment, I try to make sense of what happened. The spiders would never have left unless they were convinced we were all dead, so I guess the house did protect us somehow. “The Book of Gothos said that the house had bones in its walls,” I continue, as a cold shiver passes through my body, “and that a prophecy stated it would one day use those bones to protect its final children with its dying breath, but...” Spotting something white poking out of the ground nearby, I step over and find that it appears to be part of a large section of bone, charred and damaged but still just about intact. I reach out and run my hand over the edge. If the house was alive, it's certainly dead now.
“I don't know what to believe anymore,” Jonathan says after a moment. “All I know is that you and I are alive.”
“What about the others?” I ask.
