Club Eternity: The Ninth Jonathan Shade Novel

by Gary Jonas

  “Not bad,” I said.

  “Why did you steal it?”

  “We were facing a Yeti, and I needed something to even the odds a bit.”

  “Don't lie to me. I know for a fact that Yetis hunt in packs.”

  “They do?” I asked. “Oh shit, we need to get back.”

  “Do you have any weapons we can take?” Kelly asked. “Our party is in danger.”

  “Rifles,” I said.

  “A sword,” Kelly said.

  “This is life and death, Mr. Bon Jovi.”

  “My name is Rick,” he said. “Why should I help you?”

  “Because I'm going to take down the Men of Anubis,” I said.

  Rick laughed. “That's a good one.” He grew serious. “Really, why should I help you?”

  “I just told you.”

  He blinked. “Are you insane? You stole from me, so that does suggest insanity.”

  “You had weapons on a cart in a back room. That's not really keeping them secure.”

  “How did you get into the back room?”

  The bartender shrank away from him.

  I did her a solid. “I didn't mean to. I just happened to hit a panel on the wall and the door opened. I thought there might be a restroom back there.”

  “Restrooms are down the hall on the right.”

  “Yeah, but a big Japanese guy was standing in the hallway asking people to rub his belly, so I didn't want to go that way.”

  “Fucking Hotei.” Rick shook his head. “So you saw the weapons and stole one.”

  “I was borrowing it without permission,” I said. “I was going to bring it back.”

  “It was mint condition!”

  “I didn't know that.”

  “It wasn't yours!”

  “I was in the middle of the Pamir Mountains without a weapon.”

  “You were in my club!”

  “Well, I came here from Tajikistan.”

  “How? You're a human!”

  I held up my arm to show him the bracelet. “With this,” I said pointing at it.

  He stared at it. “Her too?”

  Kelly held up her wrist and showed the bracelet wasn't accessible.

  “How? What? This makes no sense.”

  “I'm immune to magic, Rick. You're a wizard, and while your bracelets have technology implanted in them, which does work on me, your burial spell is magic, and that doesn't affect me.”

  “How'd you know I was a wizard?”

  “Because a god wouldn't be a manager, but wizards are greedy little bastards who will do damn near anything for money.”

  “I'll need proof you're immune.”

  “Throw a spell at me.”

  He grinned. “Fine. You have nice thick hair. Kiss it goodbye.” He wiggled his fingers at me.

  I stared at him.

  He stared at my hair.

  “Maybe I did that wrong,” he said. “Let me try it on her.”

  Kelly glared at him. “You raise a finger at me, I'll break it off.”

  “Charming little minx, aren't you?” Rick said.

  “Can you spot us some weapons? I'll make it worth your while.”

  “How will you do that? If you're going after the Men of Anubis, you'll be dead. Erased from the sands of time.”

  “I've faced them before, and I'm still here. My name is Jonathan Shade. You may have heard of me.”

  He shook his head. “I don't pay attention to flash in the pan celebrity. I know Zeus and Thor and Odin and Brahma. Why should I care about a human?”

  “You collect weapons,” I said. “What if I promise to bring you Vajra when I'm through with it?”

  “Indra's scepter?”

  “That's what we're after in the Pamirs.”

  “Indra sent the Yetis after you?”

  “I don't know. I've only seen the one Yeti.”

  “He has a pack that protects him.”

  “Then he probably knows we're coming. Can you spot us a few weapons?”

  “My weapons are all one-of-a-kind pieces, so forget that.” He studied me for a moment. “But I will send you back if you promise to bring Vajra to me. I don't think you can do it, but it's worth a shot.”

  “It would sure look good on your weapons rack.”

  “You just saw some of my new arrivals.”

  “So we're good here?”

  “We kinda have to be. Odds are you won't survive to bring Vajra to me, and you don't have anything of value on you, so have a nice death. Nice talking with you.”

  “I'll get back to the bar,” the bartender said. “Good luck, Shade.”

  Rick sent us back to the mountains.

  We appeared right where we'd left, but instead of facing Victor, Pavel, and Brenda, we faced two large Yetis with their arms raised and mouths open to reveal fangs.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The Yetis didn't move.

  I jumped back at first, but when they didn't react and their fur didn't sway in the breeze, I reached out and touched one of them.

  “Statues,” I said. “Brenda must have handled them.”

  “Good for her,” Kelly said.

  The tents were still in place, but nobody was in sight. The morning sun struck the snow and I found myself squinting. If there were more Yetis around, they'd be difficult to spot.

  “Brenda!” I yelled. “Victor! Pavel!”

  “You sure you want to go yelling? There may be more of these animals about.”

  “Worth the risk.”

  “If you say so.”

  No answering cries. Had they gone on without us?

  “We should go find them,” I said.

  “In a minute. We need to check these animals for potential weaknesses.”

  “They're stoned.”

  “Funny,” Kelly said. “You know what they're like when they're living flesh. Look for spots where we can do critical damage should we have to face any more of them.”

  “Right. Freaky looking bastards,” I said, walking around the two Yetis.

  Kelly studied them. “Interesting,” she said as she peered into one of their mouths.

  “What's that?”

  “I think a solid punch or kick to the throat is the best tactic if you face one of them hand-to-hand.”

  “And if I miss and get my hand in a Yeti mouth, I'll smack it upside the head with my stump.”

  “Ears are good.”

  “Pavel has a gun.”

  “Your shots didn't slow one down.”

  “Aim for the eyes?”

  “Sure, if the shooter isn't panicked about a gigantic Yeti bum-rushing him.”

  “There's blood on the ground,” I said. “We really need to find the others.”

  “All right. I've got all I need here.” She gave one more look into their ears, shrugged, then joined me as I walked back to the tents,

  They were empty.

  Tracks led away from the camp. More Yeti tracks crossed the path a few times.

  “The ones Brenda killed or additional creatures?” I asked.

  “We won't know until we catch up.”

  We trudged through the snow at a heightened pace. At our current altitude, I couldn't go for very long at this rate. I was in decent shape, but the mountain air was taking its toll.

  Kelly noticed me slowing. “Want me to go ahead?”

  “Hell no,” I said. “What if more of the Yetis are watching us now?”

  “I don't sense anyone watching us.”

  “Did you sense the first Yeti before it attacked?”

  ”Point taken.”

  An hour later, we still hadn't caught up. More Yeti tracks crossed the path, and based on the varying sizes of prints, we knew there were at least three of them. The tracks seemed fresh, so we ruled out the two statues as having made any of these.

  “I need to rest,” I said. “Just a few minutes.”

  Kelly stopped and scanned the area around us while I sat down and bent over, trying to catch my breath. It was cold, and I was
hungry, and I was worried about Brenda, and my hand stung. To a lesser extent, I worried about Pavel because we needed him to get off the mountain. I didn't give a crap about Victor. The Yetis were welcome to him.

  A gunshot.

  “That was close by,” Kelly said and took off running.

  I pushed myself up and hurried after her. More gunshots echoed off the slopes.

  Kelly leaped over the side of an embankment and disappeared from view. By the time I reached the place she'd jumped from, she was on a rocky outcropping facing two Yetis. She kicked one in the throat. It staggered back, clutching its neck. Kelly followed up with a back spin kick to the beast's head and knocked it off the rock.

  The other Yeti tried to slash her, but she blocked the swing, darted inside its defenses and slid between its legs. She came up behind it and cracked her fists hard on its ears. The creature howled in pain, and Kelly kicked it off the rock too.

  A third Yeti lay in the snow, blood leaking from its head.

  Pavel sat against a large boulder. Brenda and Victor huddled behind him.

  “Are there more?” I called.

  “Behind you!” Kelly yelled.

  I started to turn, but a Yeti tackled me. We fell down the embankment, tumbling wildly. I tried to tuck myself in to avoid broken arms and legs. I took solid impacts on my back and side, but my coat cushioned the blows. The Yeti grunted with various impacts as we careened down the slope.

  The last hurrah was a five foot drop onto a ledge. I hit it hard on my back and thought for sure I was going to go over and fall hundreds of feet. Instead, the Yeti landed on top of me, flattening me against the outcropping. The beast bounced off me and tumbled off the precipice. I slid over the edge after it, but caught a good handhold. My palm hurt like a son of a bitch, but I endured it. A glance down told me the Yeti wouldn't be attacking any more climbers.

  I pulled myself up onto the ledge. My back, shoulders, and side hurt, but nothing was broken. I peeled off my glove to see if the cut on my hand reopened, but the bandage was still white. I shook my hand a couple times, donned the glove and worked my way back up toward Kelly and the others. Kelly was on her way down to me, but she stopped.

  “Let me throw you a rope,” she called. “The slope here is slippery.”

  I wasn't thinking about slipping, but as soon as she said that, my foot hit a slick spot and I slid down a few feet. My stomach flipped and I flattened myself against the mountain. My hands scrambled for rocks to grab.

  “A rope would be nice,” I said.

  Kelly tossed a rope down to me. I tied myself off and she started pulling me up. I walked up the steep slope with her assistance and made it back to safety. My aches and pains faded away as I rushed over to Brenda.

  “I see you made some still life art from the Yetis,” I said as I looked her over. She didn't seem to be injured, so I embraced her. Holding her, I realized just how much she meant to me.

  “Haul them down the mountain and donate them to a museum,” she said.

  “Sounds like a plan.” I looked at Pavel and Victor. “Everyone else okay?”

  “We're out of porters,” Victor said.

  “One of those animals scratched me,” Pavel said. “But it is not bad.”

  “Nice shooting,” I said.

  “There may be more of them,” Kelly said.

  “There are six more,” Victor said. “They just came out of a cave about a hundred feet up.” He pointed.

  Sure enough, there was a cave opening, and six more Yetis were working their way down the slope toward us.

  “Why are you smiling?” Victor asked.

  “Because we just found the entrance to Indra's home.”

  Victor smiled too. “Excellent. Would you like to know why I'm smiling?”

  “Because you didn’t need the disk thing Zeus gave us to find the entrance?” I asked.

  He shook his head.

  “We're going to need to deal with those Yetis,” Kelly said.

  “You'll do no such thing,” Victor said.

  I clenched my fists and moved toward him. “You try to compel her to do anything, I'll punch your fangs down your throat.”

  Several loose rocks tumbled from the mountain face a few feet above us.

  I looked up.

  A shirtless man wearing an Egyptian kilt stepped out of the mountain wearing a black jackal mask. He held a spear, which he aimed downward at me.

  “Are you Larry, Curly, or Moe?” I asked. But my insides went cold as the snow around me.

  “My name is Khamet.”

  “How did you find me?”

  Khamet tilted his head. “You look familiar, but I must confess that I don't know who you are.”

  “But--”

  “I am here to retrieve one of the lost Rings of Aten.”

  Victor stepped forward. “I happen to be in possession of the Ring of Aten. If you'll freeze time, we can discuss terms.”

  Khamet stood in midair. His mask tilted toward Victor. “I do not freeze time and you are not one to discuss terms, vampire. The ring belongs to us.”

  The Yetis closed in around us. Pavel aimed his gun. Brenda pulled off her gloves. Kelly spun to face them. I glanced at them, then back to Khamet.

  “Freeze time,” Victor said. “Freeze it now!”

  Pavel shot the closest Yeti in the head. It kept coming because he'd missed the brain stem. He fired again and again.

  Kelly whirled around and attacked the beasts. She moved with amazing skill and watching her was like witnessing a well-choreographed dance. She kicked one Yeti in the throat, ducked an attack from a second, and pulled her coat over her head. She spun around, wrapping the coat around a third Yeti, pinning its arms. She twisted and sent the Yeti spinning out of her coat. It crashed into two more.

  I didn't know what to do. Should I fight the Yetis or try and deal with the larger threat of the Men of Anubis? Brenda didn't know what to do, either.

  Kelly kept the Yetis off us. Pavel ran out of bullets and the one Yeti that got through plowed into him, taking him to the ground, but the fight was out of it.

  “Brenda,” I said, and pointed at Khamet. “Can you reach his leg?”

  She extended her hand. I knew she wasn't quite tall enough, so I moved forward and gave her a boost. Her hand closed around Khamet's bare ankle. Flesh on flesh.

  Khamet’s ankle started to stiffen, but then it loosened up. He slowly turned around to look down at Brenda.

  “Foolish human,” he said then drove his spear through her chest. The glistening head went all the way through her, and missed my shoulder by mere inches.

  “No!” I yelled.

  He jerked the spear back and Brenda fell into my arms. She blinked twice, tried to speak, but no words issued forth.

  “No no no,” I said.

  She lifted a hand to touch my cheek. Her eyes pleaded with me for a few seconds and then they went still and blank. Her final breath expelled in a staggered staccato that ended in a soft hiss and Brenda was gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  I cradled Brenda's body in my arms. At that moment, I didn't care what happened to me. Khamet could have rammed his spear through me and I wouldn't have been able to stop him. All I could do was stare into Brenda's lifeless eyes.

  How could I have let this happen? Again.

  “Now will you freeze time?” Victor's voice.

  “I told you, I do not do that,” Khamet said. “Should I need time to stop, I would call Chronos or I'll simply step into a different moment.”

  “Then call Chronos,” Victor said.

  “Whatever for?”

  “We're under attack, and you just killed a good person.”

  “I do not see an attack.”

  I looked up. Kelly strode toward us, stepping over the corpses of fallen Yetis. “You're about to see one,” Kelly said.

  “Kelly, no!” I said and rose to my feet. I stepped in front of her and held her back. “Stop.”

  “He killed Brenda.”
>
  “He'll kill all of us with less effort than it takes to breathe.”

  “Then we go down fighting. I don't have a problem with that.”

  “Give me some time.”

  She frowned and started to object, but she saw something in my eyes and relented. “If he makes one wrong move...”

  I took a deep breath. “Thank you.”

  When I turned around, Khamet was facing Victor with one hand held out, palm up.

  “Place the ring in my hand, vampire.”

  “I'm telling you we need to talk before you do anything. Can you please call Chronos? Brenda was a kind woman. She deserves to live.”

  “I do not care about the lives of individual humans.”

  “I hate to interrupt,” I said.

  “Then don't,” Victor said. “You just got Brenda killed, you moron.”

  The truth in his words was like a knife in the heart, but I had to try to keep the rest of us alive.

  “Khamet,” I said. “May I speak with you?”

  Khamet regarded me again, then pointed and shook his finger. “I think I know you.”

  That meant he really wasn't here for me. Which meant Victor lied. “We've met.”

  “That's my point,” Victor interrupted. “I wore the Ring of Aten to attract you here so we could make a deal.”

  “I do not make deals with vampires.”

  “I think you'll make an exception in this case.”

  “Shut up, Victor,” I said. “I'll deal with your lying ass in a minute.”

  “You won't be alive to deal with me,” he said.

  Khamet dropped down on the rocky mountain and slammed his spear against the stone. An awful clang echoed through the air and we all covered our ears and flinched away from him.

  “One at a time,” Khamet said, “or I'll simply kill all of you and return to my family.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but the ground rumbled beneath my feet. Snow and rocks bounced and an awful grating of stone on stone scraped the air all around us. The ground moved upward. Another sound reverberated above us. I looked up. An avalanche of rocks, boulders, stones, soil, snow, and vegetation crumbled from the movement and toppled over on top of us.

  I didn't even have time to bend over and kiss my ass goodbye.

  The avalanche crashed all around us, but not directly on us. Everything moved and the motion knocked us off our feet. We bounced on the cold ground, except for Khamet, who simply stood in place. An energy wave glowed around him and extended out to cover our location so the avalanche went over us without causing any damage. The wave wasn't really a force field. Or perhaps it was, but rather than blocking the stones and snow, it disintegrated all of them. When the movement finally slowed, we stood inside a cone of rock and snow, and the mountain we'd been climbing kept rising higher into the sky as if it were a giant that had been crouched in the earth and decided to stand up for the first time in thousands of years.