“God, Gabriel, I couldn’t bear it if he hurt them,” she said as tears pricked at her eyes.
“I’ll see to it that you won’t have to,” he told her with an evil glint in his eye. “Lupo has done enough to the people I care for already. He’ll have no chance to do even more.”
“I hope that you are right,” she whispered, laying her head against the crook of his arm.
“I know that I am right,” he said , and wiped at her tears with tender care.
CHAPTER FIVE
They had exhausted all the old cathedrals and other houses of religion they could find in Rome proper except one. The very idea that such a powerful weapon would be hidden in the most obvious place seemed crazy at first until Betsy injected her own brand on logic to it.
“If Gordral was proven false by the Church, wouldn’t all of his possessions be forfeit?” she pointed out. “Of course we’re going to find it somewhere in the Vatican itself. There’s more stuff hidden in there than in all the tombs of Egypt.”
Rico got a speculative look for a moment, and then nodded appreciatively. “You’ve got a smart woman there, Gabriel. But there’s only one thing you’ve left out, Betsy. Something that dark they wouldn’t want inside the building itself. They’ve a special place for such dark and mysterious items. Bound by angelic magic somewhere beneath the Vatican itself, where they believe nothing can get in or out. There are even some who believe that within those caves is a gateway into hell, guarded by Cerberus himself.”
“Oh, come on you two,” Gabriel scoffed. “You still think that stupid dog is involved in all of this?”
“Don’t forget about the painting on the doorway that led to the stones,” Rico reminded him.
“So what?” Gabriel said. “That only proves the guy who put them there believed the story, not that the beast itself truly exists. Let’s at least try to keep a handhold on reality.”
“There are stranger things in heaven and earth,” Rico commented. “Most people don’t even believe in the existence of werewolves, boss, and yet here we stand, living proof that they are wrong.”
“Well, if they do exist, I doubt that we’re going to run into them while we are down there,” he insisted. “However, I do think that on this trip that all of us should go inside. There’s safety in numbers, or so I have been told.”
“Yeah, boss, I agree,” Rico said. “Everyone with a stone should go inside. The other three men I’ll have to send back to base and hope they make it there in one piece. It’s a fair bet if the thing is down there that whoever is guarding it has become well aware of our search by now. We will have to tread very carefully if we don’t want to get ourselves imprisoned or killed.”
“I thought you said with these stones we can’t be killed,” Gabriel said.
“Yeah, but I never said they couldn’t take them out of our hands somehow and then kill us,” Rico pointed out.
Gabriel nodded his understanding of this statement and grasped his stone harder than ever. “Let’s go,” he said with grim determination, and that’s exactly what they all did.
The entrance to the caves was hidden inside one of the neighboring structures but Rico seemed to have an unerring idea which one. But getting inside was a bit more difficult than locating the way. Gabriel wouldn't even have realized the odd markings were some kind of puzzle if Rico hadn't told him so.
“It’s a good thing we don’t need torches to see down here,” said Gabriel a long while later. “If we did, they would most assuredly have burned out by now. I begin to wonder if we are even still in Rome, we’ve come so far.”
“These catacombs spiral downward, my friend,” said Rico with a smirk. “Presumably, the further down we go, the more dangerous the toys we’re likely to find. Since the lance was allegedly created to kill hell spawn, it’s highly likely to be a whole lot closer to hell.”
“If you believe in such things,” Gabriel added with a roll of his eyes.
“All right, Gabriel, I think we all get it now,” Betsy told him. “You don’t believe in hell. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be any less prepared just in case.”
“Same here,” Rico agreed. The other ten men who had come along mostly agreed, though two others seemed to be in agreement with Gabriel.
This far beneath the surface, as had been the case in the labyrinth, the heat became more intense. There was a lake of fire that spanned a far greater distance than the one they’d had to deal with before, and it took a long time to try to skirt it. Days might have passed before they managed to find the other side for all they knew. The only reason for doubt was that if more than a day had gone by they probably would have become wolves by now or at least they would have been capable of it.
“But what if this place is lined with more Riconite?” Betsy pointed out. “It would make sense if they used it down here since they are trying to contain unnatural energies.”
“Yeah, you may have a point,” Rico said. “I just wish I knew how much longer this was going to take. The team working on the armor told me they’d try to have a prototype finished within the next two weeks and I was really looking forward to having a look.”
“I’m sure it can’t be too much longer now,” Gabriel said. “You can’t get too much deeper than a lake of fire. Any deeper than this, the lance would have melted and become useless.”
“Gabriel, my friend, when did you become such a cynic?”
“I don’t know, I just can’t seem to shake the mood,” he admitted. “I have a bad feeling we’re coming down here half-cocked and we’re not going to be ready when it’s time to fire.”
“You’re right to be worried,” Rico told him. “I have no idea what we’re about to find down here, and for all we know the lance may play no part in whatever it is whatsoever.”
“Well, we seem to have reached the end of this lake, so whatever it is we’re about to find out,” he said.
At his words, the large group stopped short and looked cautiously around. If there was going to be any sort of trouble, it was likely to happen here, at the ending and the beginning. Strangely, a light wind kicked up and blew across the expanse of cave ahead of them, trailing dust and steam across the walkway.
“What is that up ahead?” asked Betsy as she pointed to a long, tall wall if rock with a clearly unnaturally made opening carved out and barred by a wrought-iron gate.
“Well, I’m pretty sure it isn’t the gateway to the North Pole,” Rico commented with a smirk.
“Okay, then why don’t you go and see if Cerberus is taking a snooze on the other side?” she suggested with a slight smirk.
“Ladies first,” he said. “Besides, if he does happen to be there he’ll just ignore us, right?”
“Theoretically, yes,” she agreed. “But I don’t know if I could say the same thing for any other demonic types who might be holed up in there along with him.”
“Would you two just get moving already?” Gabriel complained. “Whoever we find in there is probably taking a nap while they wait for us to even get there.”
Laughing, they moved forward again. Betsy took Gabriel’s hand in her own and gave it a squeeze. After a moment in which he rolled his eyes at her, he chuckled and squeezed hers back. The group reached the gate and Rico stepped forward to peer through the bars.
“How anti-climactic,” he said. “There doesn’t appear to be anyone waiting on the other side at all. In fact, the gate isn’t even locked. What are the odds of that?”
“Can you say ‘set up’?” Gabriel asked him.
“Most likely,” he agreed. “But we’re not going to find out from out here, are we?”
“Well then, by all means, send those guys in to lead the way.”
The three of them laughed, but the others seemed a bit less mirthful after the joke.
“Men, if you will?” said Rico, and the ten of them stepped forward. One by one, they filed inside the gates and when everyone had gone inside Betsy shut the gates behind her, then immediately rattled th
em to see if they would open again.
“Locked,” she announced then.
“That figures,” Gabriel said with a roll of his eyes. “I suppose forward is the only way.”
*
The gateway led into a large courtyard and further in to a castle that was part of the rocks, jutting upward among the stalactites. The stalactites themselves were huge enough they could easily have been mistaken for spires themselves if their points were not facing downward. There were no answering stalagmites anywhere, suggesting that they’d all been cleared away by whoever had built this place.
The heated air that had been swirling around before they’d come in here was more pronounced now, and after a short search for curiosity’s sake, Rico found a vent allowing the air inside. “It’s very likely that somehow this vent is being fed air from all the way up on the surface. Who knows what kind of network of holes and openings it must have taken to bring it all the way down here.”
“Do you suppose that’s why they chose this spot to put this castle?” Gabriel asked curiously.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” he said. “But the real question is, does anyone occupy the place now?”
“Well, let’s go inside and see what we find,” Betsy said excitedly. She may have missed out on visiting all the other castles but that didn’t mean she couldn’t use this one as a substitute. After all, nobody else had any idea this one was even here.
“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Gabriel whispered astutely into her ear. “Maybe if the place is actually abandoned we could find somewhere to take a nap. I feel like I’ve been walking for a month.”
“Probably not as long as all that,” Betsy said. “But I know just what you mean.”
“The men have reported that no one seems to be inside,” Rico told them. “It may be safe enough to rest here before we continue.”
“Continue where?” Gabriel asked. “We’re at the bottom of the caves and we’re locked inside this area. Where did you plan on continuing to?”
“There is that,” Rico agreed. “But a good rest may be just what I need to be able to think of something. Who knows, maybe there’s a key to the gate in here somewhere.”
“Wouldn’t that be convenient?” said Gabriel tiredly. “Andare, I am too tired to care just now.”
“It’s strange that we’ve all become so tired, don’t you think?” asked Betsy with a yawn.
“We have been walking for a very long time.”
“No, something is not right about this,” she predicted. “We should set a guard at the very least.”
“Of course,” said Rico. “That goes without saying.”
“Maybe two guards so they can keep each other awake,” Gabriel said. “Sleeping guards won’t do anybody much good.”
“Great idea,” said Rico with a smirk.
Everyone went inside the castle and found a place to sleep. It didn’t take very long for all of them to pass out on the floor. It was no great surprise when they woke later to find that the two guards had also passed out, leaving the party to be easily captured by the twenty knights who were now rousing them from their slumber.
“Are they Templars?” asked Betsy uncertainly.
“They can’t be,” said Rico. “They don’t have a cross on either side of their armor.”
“Former Templars, then,” she said.
“You are not far from wrong, fair one,” said one of them in perfect English. “We were once Templars in the service of our leader, but in order to guard that which we have been charged to protect, we were forced to become the very thing we were once taught to abhor. Now we are apostates in service only to God Himself.”
Shrewdly, Rico asked, “Are you werewolves?”
“Indeed we are, just as you are,” he replied. “There can be only one reason such as you came all this way, but I wonder if your reason for seeking Gordral’s lance is one worthy of us helping you.”
“An Alpha wolf has become drunk with power and thinks to command us against our wills,” Rico explained. “This couple has been forced to abandon their babies in order to keep them safe from him. It is our hope that by ending this man’s tyranny, we would then be able to reunite the parents with their children.”
“You have two babies?” asked another knight curiously. “I can see them in my mind’s eye. I fear they are not as safe as you believe, but the vision is cloudy. It is difficult to see the living sometimes. I am much more used to viewing the dead.”
“You mean ghosts?” asked Gabriel, trying to keep his smirk to himself.
“You do not believe in ghosts?” he queried. “Well, most ghosts do not believe in you, so you are even.”
“So you mean you’ve actually seen ghosts?” Gabriel wanted to know.
“Every day,” he assured him. “But come along, it isn’t any of us you need to convince if you hope to win the use of the lance. You’ll have to convince Gordral himself.”
“Gordral?” Gabriel gasped. “But I thought he was dead.”
“How can Gordral be here?” Rico wanted to know. “He was put to death centuries ago.”
“Perhaps he is one of the ghosts of which he speaks?” Betsy pointed out.
“No, he is not,” said the knight firmly. “He was the first to be turned once he realized the truth of what he had wrought. Only the true maker of the lance could possibly know how to keep his creation out of the wrong hands. There are many who seek to use the lance for purposes of evil, and it is our job to make certain that they do not.”
“If Gordral must see us in order for us to accomplish what we came for, then by all means lead the way,” said Gabriel.
“It’s not that easy,” he said. “First you must earn the right to speak to him.”
“How do you mean?” Betsy asked, grabbing her husband’s arm possessively.
“The man who hopes to wield the lance must prove himself worthy,” the knight insisted.
“How would we do that?”
“You must continue on into the depths and find the shield of Bardok which was lost many years ago,” the knight explained. “Bring it back and we will allow you to speak to Gordral.”
“You lost the thing and don’t want him to know about it, didn’t you?” Betsy asked.
“Yes,” he admitted. “See what happens when you bring a woman along?”
“Yes, I do,” Gabriel said proudly.
“Methinks this one is under his woman’s spell,” said another knight to the first, and all of them chuckled.
“Willingly so,” Gabriel admitted. “What man among you has such a loving caretaker to call his own?”
“Not all of us would welcome such a caretaker,” he commented dryly.
“Ah, I see,” he said with a smirk of understanding. “But perhaps if the lover was packaged a bit differently?”
“I don’t think we were here to discuss the apostates right now,” he said. “Don’t you have a mission to begin?”
“Agreed,” Gabriel said.
“Good luck, then,” the first knight said. “Return to this place when you possess the shield, and we’ll lead you to Gordral.”
CHAPTER SIX
“Great, so now we’re walking even further down the rabbit hole,” Betsy grumbled as they continued to trudge along. “I hope it doesn’t take just as long to get to wherever this shield is as it did to get to the castle.”
“Betsy, my eternal optimist, what’s happened to you?” Gabriel smirked. “Have you finally seen one castle too many, ma bella?”
“Never,” she gasped dramatically. “How could you say such a thing?”
Gabriel chuckled and Betsy chuckled with him. Their laughter was soon cut short, however, by the horde of demonic-looking creatures headed in their general direction. Both their alarmed gazes flashed to Rico, who for once actually looked as worried as everyone else.
“Well, at least we know demons exist now,” he commented. “Everyone has their stones, correct?”
They all did. The appa
rent leader of the group called out an order in a guttural language, and they attacked full force. They were on them in moments, wingtips and claws and teeth everywhere, but no one took so much as a scratch, and soon the attack ceased and the leader stepped forward.
“How is it possible that you live?” he demanded in halting English.
“Our secrets remain our own,” Rico told him boldly. “Tell us what has happened to Gordral’s shield.”
“It is my shield now,” said another demon they hadn’t yet noticed, who joined the others from somewhere behind them. “No one shall take it from me.”
“I beg to differ,” Gabriel told him. “I grow tired of all of this. I want my children with me where they belong. If you force me to take it from you, I guarantee I will succeed.”
The creature bellowed loudly at all the others, and they backed away. Every werewolf but Gabriel did the same. Rico tossed a sword to Gabriel which he caught without even bothering to look. He was too busy glaring up at the demon as he grew larger before him.
“It’s good to see you place at least that much confidence in my skills,” Gabriel told the demon with a fierce smirk.
“I’ll squash you like the insect you are,” he replied.
All the spectators cheered as the two exchanged blows. Any time Gabriel got in a good hit, the demons hissed their displeasure. If the demon hit Gabriel, the men booed at him for it. This went on for quite a while before the combatants figured out that neither one of them was going to win.
“Stop,” the demon finally said. “I will come with you and continue to carry my shield. How many others could boast of being shielded by a real demon?”
“I don’t know if Gordral is going to like that idea,” Gabriel mentioned. “I only wanted the shield to get him to give me the lance so I can kill a werewolf who is keeping me from retiring so I can be with my family. It’s all one really big mess.”
“You haven’t met Gordral as yet, have you?” the demon smirked. “I’m Gaal-det, by the way. Come on, I’ll help you get the lance out of him. Gordral’s not so tough when you know his soft spots.”
Return Of The Real Italian Alphas Page 4
