by Dyrk Ashton
She screams in frustration, anger and fright. Zeke attempts a feeble grab at her as she charges from behind the piano.
“Stop it!” she cries, approaching Peter, who doesn’t take his eyes off Kleron. “Just stop it!!!”
Zeke stumbles up, takes her by the shoulder, “Fi,” but she pulls away.
Edgar is dismayed by her outburst, out of fear for her safety. “Fiona!”
“No!” she shouts, pointing the flute at him. Then she jabs the instrument at Kleron like a weapon. “You! That’s enough!”
Kleron grins darkly.
“Fi,” says Peter, still watching Kleron. “Calm down.”
“I won’t! All of you! Just stop it!!!”
“FIONA!!!!!!”
The voice isn’t Peter’s alone, but that of a thousand Peters. The voice of a god. The air excites with its power and the house shakes. Outside, the wind peaks at its call, rain pummels the windows and lightning strikes in rapid succession, blasting a tree to splinters and setting the trunk aflame.
All in the room feel the command of that voice. Especially Fi. She stares at Peter, cowed and amazed.
“Fi,” he says coolly, “let me handle this. Please.”
“Okay.” She backs away trembling, an equally shaky Zeke guiding her so she doesn’t fall over the piano bench.
Peter sizes up his opponents, calculating options, weighing the odds--then he catches a subtle shift in the stance of one of the Cerberi, a slight clenching of a fist, a brief meeting of the eyes.
He glares at Kleron. “You have my answer.”
Wepwawet smirks in cruel satisfaction.
Kleron’s voice is a chill whisper. “So be it. Pater has spoken.”
No sooner are the words out of Kleron’s mouth than Cù Sìth backhands him hard, knocking him through the air, then spins, front kicks Surma into Henri and Didier, and rakes his claws across Wepwawet’s eyes.
Wepwawet staggers back with a howl, releasing Kabir and clutching at the ragged wounds on his face. Cù catches Kabir and tosses him to flop at Peter’s feet.
Kleron snaps out his wings to halt his trajectory and lands in a crouch behind Max. He rises, showing no signs of injury--but his eyes burn red at Cù Sìth and his mouth twists in a caustic sneer. “You...”
Max grins madly. “Bad doggie!”
Wepwawet slaps the blood from his bright blue eyes, which blaze at the apprehension of what Cù has done. He and Surma roar in fury at their brother’s betrayal. Cù roars back, deeper and louder--then everyone in the room freezes as a deep timpani thrum underscores all, charging the atmosphere with crackling force. The lights flicker and dim.
Peter’s fist is a dithering blur. He uncurls his fingers to reveal the gold rod from the bank and utters a single word. To Fi and Zeke, it sounds like, “Goongneer.”
An arctic chill shocks the air. Electric blue energy surges over Peter’s body and down his arm. Particles of light whirl around his hand and expand in a sparkling cloud.
Time stands still. The cloud implodes.
Icy wind buffets all as every bit of air in the room seems to be sucked into Peter’s hand. The object springs into a shaft, six feet in length, with a long jagged spearhead. Electricity sizzles over Peter’s arm and the spear, then extinguishes.
No one moves except Max, who poises as if preparing to flee, or attack. Either way, his grin has been wiped away. Any trace of a sneer is gone from Kleron’s face.
Peter surveys the group, his visage grim and imposing. With all Fi and Zeke have now seen, they're exceedingly glad they’re on the same side.
Kleron’s eyes move from Peter to Cù Sìth, then Edgar and Zeke, and finally settle on Fi. “Until we meet again.” He opens his mouth, impossibly wide, and emits a prolonged ear-splitting squeak of incredibly high frequency, at the edge of human hearing and beyond. Fi and Zeke recoil at the unearthly sound.
Crackling power of blue and gold spirals down Peter’s arm, builds like a ball of static at his fist, but in the time it takes for him to aim the spear and discharge the blinding streak of lightning, Kleron grasps Max’s shoulder, takes a small step back, and they vanish. Where they stood, the stone floor explodes and melts to fuming magma.
* * *
In the eerie silence that follows, Peter’s eyes fall on Surma and Wepwawet. Cù Sìth loops to block their escape through the arch. They hunker together and snarl. Nearby, Henri and Didier make themselves as inconspicuous as possible.
“Traitorous bitch,” Surma grumbles in a grinding tongue never known to human beings.
“That depends on one’s point of view,” Cù replies in the same language.
Henri and Didier dart for the arch, but Cù catches each by the head in his giant paws. He lifts them until their feet dangle, gives them a moment to consider their fate, then claps his hands. Brains splatter and their shuddering bodies drop at his feet.
Mol cocks his ears toward the windows and growls deep in his throat. Peter probes the walls with his eyes, listening--and all hell breaks loose as a shrieking multitude of wampyr and werewolves crash through the windows.
Edgar shouts, “Fiona!” Zeke instinctively grabs up the guitar and they rush to Edgar’s side. Breaking glass and pounding feet can be heard from throughout the house. Wepwawet and Surma howl and fling themselves at Cù Sìth.
Peter remains surprisingly calm. He eyes the guitar in Zeke’s hands, then strides to a chest, knocking attackers aside, kicks it open, pulls out a guitar case and tosses it to him. Zeke ogles him, questioning.
Peter nods in affirmation, then shouts to Edgar. “Go!”
Zeke stows the guitar. Edgar whistles for Mol. They hurry toward the hall that leads to the kitchen.
Kabir grunts from where he lies wriggling on the floor. Peter frees him from his bonds with one deft cut of the spear, tugs him to his feet and rips the gag from his mouth.
“My apologies--” Kabir offers in his deep crunchy voice.
“Later,” Peter cuts him off. “Time to fight.”
Without another word, Kabir postures low, roars, and charges the ghastly host. Wamps and weres go down like bowling pins that scream and bleed.
While Mol stands guard, Edgar shoves Fi’s flute into her backpack and lifts the pack to her, but wamps and weres rush around the corner from the hall. He drops the pack and keeps them at bay with sword and shield. Mol drags others down, shredding necks and limbs. But there are too many.
Edgar glances about for another exit. More fiends clamber in the great room windows while others charge through the front door and pour in from the hall at the other end of the room. Some run on all fours, others flap on fully developed bat wings. Packs of werewolves, colonies of wampyr, males, females, in multiple varieties, shapes and sizes, nightmarish subjects of folklore from around the world made flesh. Still more shriek down at them from the balcony above.
Edgar orders Fi and Zeke back and they retreat the only way they can, along the wall past the fireplace to the corner by the desk. Edgar protects their back and flank. Mol tears at all who attempt to block their path. Edgar presses Fi and Zeke into the corner and engages the enemy.
Peter stands like a statue bolted to the floor, gazing down while wamps and weres hurl themselves against him. They don’t even affect his balance.
When he looks up, his eyes gleam red. He twirls. Gungnir’s blade slices through the surrounding host as if they're made of little more than air.
* * *
Kleron tromps from the top of a rocky hill, away from a dry riverbed that lies behind and below. Max scampers alongside, chuckling to himself.
There is no storm on this world, but a raucous clatter and hum pervades the air. Flocks of violet shadows flit over the barren landscape, cast by a bloated yellow moon in a lavender sky. Kleron and Max pay no heed.
“So, Pater has recovered,” spits Kleron in the rhythmic guttural tongue of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a clan of his wampyric spawn who once invaded ancient Ireland, long before the birth of Brian Boru. “Quite swift
ly, I might add. This changes things.”
Max snickers. “And he’s got his spear, hee hee.”
“It’s no laughing matter, Max.”
Max laughs anyway.
Kleron steals a glance at him. “I’ve suspected there may be another traitor among us, but one of the Cerberi? And Cù Sìth, no less.”
Max snickers at that as well.
“What do you make of this trickery?”
Max shrugs. “We are a fickle lot, I can attest. But I’m curious to see if he is accepted, or if Pater slays him post haste.”
“As am I.” Kleron halts and takes Max’s wretched hand. He scans the ground before him and then the horizon, as if seeking unseen landmarks, then closes his eyes. Slipping can be tricky business, even for one as experienced as he.
An exceptionally rare gift, maybe two dozen Firstborn have ever been able to slip, and only a very few parvuli. Even The Prathamaja Nandana couldn’t do it, as magnificent as she was. Father has always had the ability, though it took him over an aeon to discover it. It takes an innate talent one must be born with. Then, in most cases, Father has to teach them how it is done. He showed Kleron when he was young, by accident, and Kleron took to it like--what do the parvuli say in modern English?--“like a fish to water.”
Max waits patiently, humming “Brian Boru’s March.” Kleron raises an eyelid to see him swaying contentedly with the tune, then takes a step and they slip away.
In the sky above, a thousand multi-winged horrors await.
* * *
Wampyr and werewolves continue to pour into the house, providing Peter and Kabir with a seemingly endless supply of fodder. They throw their lives away, stupid with bloodlust, or more afraid of their master than death itself. Much of the first, no doubt, but assuredly the latter. The noise is deafening, a raucous discord of squeals of agony, howls of rage, mighty blows, body falls, breaking bones, and the reckless destruction of Peter’s furnishings.
Cù Sìth pays them no heed. He has his hands full with his Cerberi brothers. All three are gouged and bleeding, but even two against one, Surma and Wepwawet have difficulty gaining the advantage. The blows they land resound throughout the room. The Master’s minions avoid them as much as possible in the press.
Droves of wamps and weres beat like waves against the sea wall of Edgar’s sword and shield. He thrusts and spins with impeccable skill, his blade trailing silver in the air and splashing blood in all directions. Severed heads clunk to the floor. Quivering bodies and limbs heap before him. Fi and Zeke huddle in a rising reservoir of red and are spattered in copious quantities of it as well.
Fi thinks she’s imagining it at first, but even in this din she hears snatches of a familiar tune. Soft and steady, while he hacks at the enemy with a stolid expression that shows no signs of fear or physical distress, Edgar is humming “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
Her mind fixates on it. Except for her uncle’s song, accompanied by the methodical thump of his shield and ring of his sword, all other sound becomes background noise. She watches as if in a dream.
Mol stands courageously over her and Zeke, ready to snap at any attacker who might get past her uncle, but none have succeeded so far. Corpses continue to pile around them in a gruesome bunker.
In the center of the room, Peter snaps Gungnir like a whip. A trail of fluid electricity fries several weres. He aims the spear along the hallway balcony above and an extended bolt of lightning leaps from the blade like a ragged blue laser, torching wamps and weres as they leap over in droves to join the brawl. Much of the ceiling and balcony are scorched as well.
Three flung wampyr smash through the glass hearth doors into the fireplace. Two of them lie dead and burning, but the third runs out screaming and flailing, engulfed in flame. Peter spin-kicks it to shoot out the window like a yowling comet.
Rain squalls through the ruined windows, flashed by sporadic lightning. The air grows thick with steam and smoke, the vigorous scent of ozone, coppery tang of vaporized blood, and acrid reek of burning wood and flesh.
Kabir is incredibly fast, sure-footed and assured, leaping effortlessly to snatch fluttering wampyr from the air and pouncing to crush his foes--but as effective as his methods are he appears brutish compared to Peter, who moves with nimble grace, irresistible, unrelenting, as if engaged in a deadly waltz. None appear capable of harming him, even if they manage to connect with fist or claw, nor do any within range escape his wrath.
Fi notices a rosy glint of delight in his eyes, his terrible crooked smile. He’s actually enjoying this.
Zeke’s in a similar state to Fi, anesthetized by Edgar’s tune, numb to the violent commotion. An automatic response, he thinks, to the utterly surreal and perilous situation they’ve found themselves in, to stave off life-threatening shock and unconsciousness.
Kabir throws off a dog-pile of the enemy, flips the piano, sending it somersaulting through the crowd. It smashes wamps and weres to pulp against the wall in a cacophony of snapping strings and bursting wood. Through a brief break in the throng, he sees Cù Sìth is in trouble.
Wepwawet has him around the neck from behind and has pinned one of his arms. They go down backwards and Wepwawet locks Cù’s legs with his own. Surma stomps Cù’s free arm, then drives a knee into his stomach and punches claws-deep into the thick meat of his chest.
Kabir knows better than to tackle one of these monsters--all three together may not equal one Maskim Xul, but they’re far older than Kabir and from a particularly frightful bloodline. He tackles Surma nonetheless, just as Surma goes for Cù’s throat.
They tumble and roll. Surma shoves him off and they both spring to their feet. Kabir readies for swift retribution, but Surma only flashes him an irritated glance before sprinting back to his brothers.
Cù wrestles out of Wepwawet’s hold, blood trickling at his neck from the near fatal swipe of Surma’s claws. Surma hits them both as they shove against each other to stand. All three crash through the wall next to the arch. A section of wall collapses and they burst out the other side, through the stairs and into the foyer.
* * *
The wampyr policeman from outside the hospital smooths rainwater from his sopping hair. He sits atop a stack of kevlar cases in front of one of the white vans parked in a copse of trees that overlooks Peter’s home. Other cases, open and empty, are scattered nearby. He lifts his face to the sky, opens his mouth, prominently displaying his fangs, and catches water from the light but steady rain. Without his motorcycle helmet he looks much the same as Derek, Tod, Curt and Hedwig--handsome, pale, and brooding. He raises a set of military grade hyperspectral goggles and peers through them to see a clearly defined, magnified image of the battle in the great room.
“These things are so freakin’ cool.”
A few yards away, a werewolf in Trueface, but still wearing his overalls with Luc embroidered on the breast, grunts impatiently. “Let me see!”
“I said no. I have my job, you have yours.”
“Mine eez done!”
“Then chill out, Frenchy. Go chase a deer or something.”
Luc grunts in frustration, checks his watch. He snatches a wireless detonator from his belt, switches it on to make sure it’s operational--for the tenth time.
“Would you leave that thing alone?” the wampyr growls.
Luc grumbles but toggles it off and puts it away. “Vere are zay?!--ARRGGHH!”
Kleron and Max have materialized right in front of him. He trips and falls backwards over empty cases.
The wampyr snickers while Luc scrambles to his feet.
“Everything eez prepared, Master!” Luc reports excitedly, taking the detonator from his belt and switching it on. “Zee charges are een place, but zay are all still in zee building.”
Kleron holds a hand out to the wampyr, who immediately relinquishes the goggles. Kleron scans the house--Peter and Kabir handily dispatching his minions, The Cerberi family feud in the foyer, Edgar and Mol repelling attackers in the corner. He zooms in
on Fi and Zeke huddled behind them, then focuses on Fi.
* * *
An especially determined group of fiends converge on Edgar. Two wampyr come shrieking over the heap of bodies straight at Fi and Zeke. Mol moves to block them, but they halt suddenly in mid-leap, then are yanked away and flung the length of the room. Fi and Zeke gape at the sight of the dusky half-big cat, half-human visage that turns upon them.
In Trueface, Kabir’s suit has been replaced by dark gray fur with a purple patch where the knot of his tie had been. He inspects them with gleaming copper tiger-eyes and points with a stout clawed finger. “Are you damaged?”
Zeke gawks at the single saber-tooth that juts down over his sturdy square jaw, and the striped cat tail that twitches over his shoulder. Fi shakes her head quickly, No.
Kabir curls one side of his feline split upper lip, presses his tongue into the ragged hole where his missing tooth had been and sucks on it. He regards Mol and nods. “Molossus.”
Fi would swear that Mol nods back. Kabir shrugs a werewolf off one sloping shoulder, untangling its claws from his gray lion’s mane, and returns to the fight, snapping its neck as he goes.
“Machairodus Kabir...” Zeke mutters.
“What?” Fi asks.
Zeke absent-mindedly wipes the spattered blood from his face. “Edgar called him Kabir. The Machairodus Kabir were big prehistoric cats, like saber-tooth tigers.”
“Wha-a-a-a-t?” Fi gazes at Kabir, who chomps on the back of a passing werewolf’s neck and shakes it vigorously.
“Peter called him Zadkiel,” Zeke adds. “Like the angel.”
Fi won’t believe it. “No way.”
But Zeke is beginning to wonder. “Maybe way.”
* * *
The numbers of the enemy are being depleted. Edgar has one of the last living werewolves, a particularly big and ugly beast, pinned to the bookshelves with his shield. Engulfed in flame, it shrieks and flails until Edgar drags his sword across its throat and lets it drop. Mol bites it on the shoulder and tosses its barbecued body onto the surrounding heap.
* * *
Kleron lowers the goggles. “Send in Mahisha.”
