by Barry Reese
“Go back to Hell,” Max answered. He dove forward, pushing the blade in front of him. It met with resistance when it struck the lizard man’s stomach and for a moment Max feared he lacked the strength to pierce his opponent’s scaly hide. But then the runes began to glow and an awful ear-splitting wail filled the air. Then the blade was on the move, slicing through the lizard man’s skin like it was a warm knife passing through butter.
K’ntu howled in pain, a scream of torment that only worsened as Max began digging the blade in deeper, twisting it from side to side until a deep rift had appeared in the scaly flesh. Intestines, warm and slimy, gushed out upon Max’s hands and the repugnant smell made him retch. He finally shoved K’ntu away from him, holding firmly onto the still-glowing blade.
The lizard man landed hard on the ground, gasping for air. He wheezed like an old man who had run too far, too fast.
The walls of flame began to burn down to nothingness, revealing the worried visage of Evelyn. She started to run to Max, but the Peregrine held her back with a shake of his head.
Stumbling over to the prone form of K’ntu, the Peregrine knelt down and nudged the lizard man’s arm. The elder being turned to stare at him with glassy eyes. “The Master will remember my sacrifice, Mr. Davies.” K’ntu coughed, sending a spray of bloody droplets into the air. “And he will remember you and yours forever. I curse you and your bloodline. I curse you to…”
The Peregrine raised the dagger and brought it down into his foe’s chest. He repeated this action twice more, stopping only when he was sure that K’ntu was dead.
“Max…”
The Peregrine turned to face his beloved, reaching up to wipe blood from his chin. The action only spread more of the gore across his face. “I’m fine. My wounds are superficial ones. Were you hurt?”
“Of course not,” Evelyn laughed nervously. “You were the one fighting… whatever the hell that was.”
The Peregrine sighed, feeling tired. “That… was what awaits the world if we don’t stop Trench.”
CHAPTER XVIII
A Match Made in Hell
“A bride?” Trench found himself unable to quite grasp what he’d been told. His eyes kept drifting back to the golden key that rested under a glass seal. Rosenkreuz had taken Trench to the key, but had warned that he would not be allowed to take it until their awful bargain had been completed.
“Yes,” the ancient being replied. Rosenkreuz was pacing about the chamber, oblivious to the dust and cobwebs that surrounded him. In his eyes, this was still a palace of wonders, a place where he and his followers could live out their days in splendor. “I once intended to take a mate, a woman who would bear me holy children. I have conducted many experiments upon myself, Mr. Trench. That is why I am so long lived… and so powerful. But my bloodline cannot continue unless I have a woman who can bear such unholy seed.”
“Bear it?”
“Most die at its touch. It burns them up alive, from the inside out.”
Trench swallowed hard, trying to ignore the images that came to mind. “I don’t understand why you think that I could…”
“Have you ever seen a woman like this?” Rosenkreuz held out an open palm. An image began to form in the air above his hand, slowly shaping a familiar visage. “Long ago, I coveted this girl… but she was denied me, through her own willful arrogance. But my second sight has told me that in this time, in this place, she lives again. Give her to me.”
Trench licked his lips before speaking. “I do know her. Her name is Evelyn Gould. She’s a rather poor excuse for an actress.”
“She is beautiful,” Rosenkreuz responded, his eyes flashing hotly.
“My apologies. I didn’t mean to insult her.” Trench ran a hand through his hair, unsure how to continue. The girl was in America… and Trench didn’t have time or patience to journey back there just to retrieve her. Could he somehow steal the key?
And then he felt it… a subtle shift in his reality. He felt bile rise up in his throat and he turned away from Rosenkreuz, vomiting up the contents of his stomach. He smelled burning reptilian flesh… and heard the dying screams of his mentor.
“What is wrong?” Rosenkreuz asked. The ancient being had approached Trench but avoided touching him. Instead, he gazed at the sick features of the other man with distaste.
“K’ntu is dead. The man who tutored me in the dark arts… who prepared me for the opening of the Cage. He’s dead.”
“How do you know this?”
“I think he sent me a message… right as he was dying.” Trench straightened, wiping at his mouth with the back of a sleeve. “You have weapons?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Good. Because my mentor’s killer is on the way here… and best of all, he’s not alone.”
Rosenkreuz narrowed his eyes. “And this is a good thing?”
“You bet it is. You ready to meet your bride-to-be? Because she’s with him.”
CHAPTER XIX
Into the Tomb
“This place stinks.”
The Peregrine grunted in agreement. He and Evelyn had crept down the stairs of the Druselturm, able to see very little in the pitch black darkness. Here and there they saw shattered lamps and snuffed-out candles, alongside digging equipment. But all was silent down in the basement area, which only put Max further on edge. The scent of the place was one of earth and age, but there was something else, as well.
Death.
Max stepped into the basement and immediately felt his foot come into contact with something. He knelt and examined it with one hand, identifying it. “Evelyn. Stop where you are.”
The girl did so, gripping her pistol and remaining poised for a fight. She was truthfully scared to death but she didn’t plan on letting Max know that.
The Peregrine reached into his pocket and retrieved a flare. He lit it, illuminating the entire basement area. Evelyn gasped behind him as the bodies and gore came into view: a small army of Germans, slaughtered and torn apart. It looked like a pack of wolves had been set upon them.
But far more intriguing was the shattered hole in one of the walls. Max could see a passageway on the other side, one that led directly into the tomb from his visions.
“Do you think there are more harpies here?” Evelyn asked. She had tended to his wounds as best she could on the way here, but Max had been a bit cold to her. He felt like he’d reached the end of this particular adventure—or at least close enough that there could be no more hesitation.
“No, I don’t think so.”
Something scuttled above them, making both Max and Evelyn glance up. What they saw confirmed Max’s suspicions. These were no harpies perched from the rafters, dangling upside down. These were thin, emaciated looking humans, with glowing cat-like eyes and mouths which dripped warm saliva. One of them, a woman, held on to the rafters with her thighs and one hand. In the other hand she held a human ear which she gnawed upon like a dog.
“Max… I don’t think we’re in a good place right now.” Evelyn moved up so close to the Peregrine that she bumped against his arm. “Have any suggestions?”
“Yes. Start shooting.”
Evelyn didn’t need a second word of encouragement. She singled out the ear-gnawing woman and fired. The bullet hit home, burying itself in the woman’s upper left arm. The gunshot sent the entire room into a flurry of activity. All of the monsters from above began dropping from their perches, including the wounded one, who snarled and jumped at Evelyn.
The Peregrine tried to put all thoughts about his lover’s safety to the back of his mind. Tossing his flare to the ground, he drew his pistols and waited.
The first of the creatures jumped up in Max’s face, punching and kicking. Max was able to block most of the blows, using fighting techniques he’d learned in the Far East. A well-placed kick to the thing’s solar plexus sent it sprawling in the dirt and the Peregrine spun about to meet another foe. This one he dispatched with a well-placed bullet to the skull. A third wrappe
d its arms about the Peregrine’s torso and bit down hard on his shoulder. Max felt a warmth begin to spread from the wound but he refused to give in to the pain. Instead he threw himself backwards against one of the stone walls. He heard the thing grunt from behind him and Max repeated the maneuver again and again, until he was free of his opponent. The Peregrine then turned and finished off his foe with another bullet.
The Peregrine then drew out the dagger that had saved him from K’ntu. He would definitely have to send it to Leopold for study at some point, but for now it had much more immediate uses. Max saw that the first of his foes was back on its feet and he lunged for the creature, eager to finish him before the thing could regroup. His first swipe with the blade dug deep into the creature’s belly and elicited a squeal of torment. The second sliced through the thing’s neck and ended its vile existence.
Panting, the Peregrine stood amongst the dead. His heart was hammering in his chest and he felt the blood rushing in his ears. It was the way it always was in combat, when the world seemed to move in white-hot flashes. The flare was flickering out now, leaving only brief spurts of light intermingled with darkness.
“Evelyn?” Max asked, looking about but seeing no trace of her. He moved through the dark towards the spot where he’d seen her last. Kneeling, he found the dead body of her foe, the woman-thing who had been snacking on the ear. She had been shot neatly between the eyes, which caused an involuntary smile to form on Max’s lips. Apparently her little pistol was capable of killing, at least at close enough range.
The smile died when he realized that Evelyn wasn’t answering him. He tensed, straining his ears for any sound, any sign of her breathing. Dimly, he heard something… but it was moving away from him, down the corridor he’d seen earlier.
Still not moving, Max focused on the sounds, identifying them. The muffled cries of a woman, the shuffling sounds of her feet being dragged across dirt-covered floors.
The visions he’d seen earlier… of Evelyn bound to an altar… sprang fully to mind. He began to run towards the corridor’s entrance but a sudden sharp blow to the back of his skull sent him tumbling to the ground. The cracking sound seemed louder than was possible inside Max’s head and he felt his consciousness begin to fade. “No… Evelyn…” he whispered.
Someone crouched at his side, prodding him with a steel bar of some sort. The voice that answered him belonged to Jacob Trench. “She’s gone to her rightful place, hero. While you… you’re going to Hell.”
Another blow landed squarely atop Max’s skull.
CHAPTER XX
The Altar of Blood
The world returned in a swimming haze.
Max found that he was on his knees, hands tied painfully tight behind his back. The throbbing in his head was painfully harsh and made him feel like vomiting, but he managed to focus on his surroundings and that distracted him a bit.
He was in a large circular chamber of some kind, one with a very high ceiling. In the center of the ceiling was an intricate carving that resembled a rose, one whose stem was covered with sharp thorns. Just in front of Max was an altar, one stained with dried blood. Atop that altar, dressed in the flimsiest of attire, was Evelyn. Her long legs were bare and covered with goosebumps and her breathing was shallow and rapid. All of that was deemed a good sign by Max, for it meant she was still alive. A serpent was coiled about her left ankle, slowly making its way up her leg. Its tongue darted out now and again, tasting the air.
“Welcome back, Mr. Davies. I had begun to wonder if my ally had accidentally killed you.”
The Peregrine craned his neck to see a tall figure approaching. It was Rosenkreuz, still looking like a dried-up mockery of an ancient Egyptian priest. His long hair-braid danced along his back as he moved.
Max forced a bit of confidence into his voice, though he felt very little of it in truth. “You look very good for your age. Clean living?”
“If only it were that easy. No, Mr. Davies… my long existence is due to personal sacrifice and an overwhelming desire for knowledge. The sorts of knowledge that many rational men fear to know.”
“I understand why you’ve got me here. I mean to stop Trench from succeeding. But why Evelyn? She’s nothing to you. Let her go.”
“Nothing to me?” Rosenkreuz stopped next to the altar, gazing lovingly down at Evelyn. He reached out a thin hand and stroked his leathery flesh against her cheek. “You have no idea how wrong you are. When I was a young man, I turned away from feminine pleasures. I thought I was above such physical concerns. But I was wrong, and I knew it from the moment I first laid eyes upon her, all those years ago.”
Max frowned in confusion. How could Rosenkreuz know anything about Evelyn? “You’ve seen her before?”
Rosenkreuz glanced up and nodded. “Oh, yes. Your… Evelyn, is it? She’s the reincarnation of a woman I treasured above all others. But she spurned me. She chose to die rather than accept eternity at my side. The pain was so intense… but I knew she’d return to me eventually. I merely had to wait.”
“She’s not your old girlfriend. Her name is Evelyn Gould and she’s an actress.” Max drew himself up as much as was possible. “And she’s spoken for.”
At that, Evelyn opened her eyes and smiled. She quickly resumed her act, however, after giving Max a quick wink.
Clever girl, the Peregrine thought. Max just hoped she could hold her cool with the serpent slowly making its way up her thighs.
Thankfully, Rosenkreuz seemed oblivious to the ruse. Instead, he was looking at Max with an almost pitying expression on his sunken features. “I wonder if you would recognize the face of the woman you loved, even over the course of centuries. I do. This is her, given new form.”
The Peregrine tested the tenacity of his bonds but found that they surpassed what little strength he had left. His struggles increased when he saw Rosenkreuz produce a dagger from the interior of his robes. It was the golden blade that Max himself had used to rid the world of K’ntu. “If you love her, why do you want a knife?” he asked aloud, hoping to distract Rosenkreuz from whatever his plans were… at least long enough for Max to figure out what to do next.
“My mistake last time was in trusting that she would recognize the love I held for her… and return it freely. In the years since, I have studied many ways of binding one soul to another… and that is what I shall do now. I shall make her love me. In all ways. For all time.” Rosenkreuz held up the dagger, studying it. “An intriguing weapon, Mr. Davies. It will do most nicely.”
Max barely contained himself. He wanted to scream out, warn Evelyn to move, but he dared not. What if it caused the madman to strike sooner?
Evelyn continued to lay where she was as Rosenkreuz raised the dagger, holding it above her slowly rising and falling chest. His lips moved, producing words that chilled Max to the bone. They were old, from a time when man was far more primitive. They were words of calling, of beseeching, to elder powers that still lurked in the gray mists of mortal souls.
A dark cloud began to form over Evelyn’s prone form, slowly beginning to develop arms and a skeletal face. Max struggled to his feet, unable to balance well because of the way his hands were bound. If need be, he would throw himself into the fray and do what he could…
“Give her to me,” Rosenkreuz whispered. “Make her mine forever!”
The cloud shape reached out for Evelyn, its hands grasping at the air. A dark voice rumbled “Pierce her heart! Let me invade her veins and then I will bind her to you…”
Rosenkreuz leered, baring his gums and teeth. “Forever,” he whispered once more.
Before Max could move to stop him, Evelyn jammed an elbow into Rosenkreuz’s groin, sending him staggering away. She kicked the snake away from her and it landed at Max’s feet. He stomped at it mercilessly, but never let his eyes slip away from the scene before him.
Evelyn slipped from the altar, dropping all pretenses of maintaining her modesty in the skimpy garment. Her bare flesh was in clear view as she deliver
ed a powerful roundhouse kick to Rosenkreuz’s head. “Sick bastard,” she hissed. Before the ancient being could rise, she punched him once more in the jaw, sending him to the floor.
Evelyn whirled about, casting a brief glance at the cloud creature, who was beginning to fade without Rosenkreuz empowering it. Making an expression of disgust, she moved around the thing and knelt beside Max, untying his bonds. “Where’s Trench?” she asked.
“I don’t know… I’d imagine Rosenkreuz gave him the key and he’s gone to open the cage.”
“Then let’s go!”
Max admired her dedication to the mission but he was more concerned with the fact that Rosenkreuz was recovering quickly. “My weapons! Do you know where they put them?”
“In the next room… where they stripped me. Oh, Max… it was awful! The way he and Trench kept pawing at me and…”
“Get my guns!” Max yelled, pushing her behind him. He wasn’t as gentle as he should have been, but the look on Rosenkreuz’s face chilled him. He looked like a man who had suffered his last indignity.
“You stupid little cow!” Rosenkreuz bellowed. “Again you mistreat me! After I have waited for so very long for you!”
“You don’t sound very enlightened to me, friend.” Max moved forward, decking Rosenkreuz with a left hook. “The lady’s not interested in you.”
“You think she loves you?” Rosenkreuz asked. “She is a deceitful witch… all women are!”
“I guess you weren’t close to your mother,” Max jibed, dancing back as Rosenkreuz swung out at him.
Rosenkreuz shot beams of eldritch energy from his eyes, narrowly missing Max. They tore chunks of rock from the wall and made Max wonder again just what magicks Rosenkreuz possessed.
“Max! Catch!”
The Peregrine glanced over to see Evelyn, still clad in her beguiling attire. She held out his pistols and then tossed them high into the air. Max realized they weren’t going to make the distance between them and so he lunged for them, even as Rosenkreuz targeted him once more. Twin beams of energy came sizzling through the air as Max caught one of the pistols. In a single breathtaking motion, he gripped the gun and twisted in mid-air, firing at his attacker. Max landed hard, for the beams of force had struck a glancing blow on his leg. His bullets, however, flew true.
