She approached the lunchroom cautiously and sniffed at the air like an animal. “I know you’re here somewhere, worm. Come out and your death will be quick.”
That wasn’t much of an offer, though at the moment it might be the best one he got. She took another step closer; her claws extended a few inches in preparation to gut him. “Come out, come out wherever you are,” she cooed.
He did so the moment she reached the center of the lunchroom doorway. As he rolled to his right, he used one hand to turn on the saw and bring it down on her right calf. The blade worked just as he’d hoped to slice through the black armor, into her flesh. Sylvia screamed in pain; he pulled the saw away from her leg and kept it poised to strike again. She tried to spin around to fire her claws at him, but she lost her balance and collapsed onto the floor.
Tim stepped back into the lunchroom, to watch her drag herself around a hundred eighty degrees. She crawled towards the lunchroom; her eyes blazed with fury. “You coward! You’re still going to be mine!”
He waited until she crossed the threshold before he stomped on her wrists with either foot. On her belly, there was nothing she could do then but scream with rage. “I’m sorry about this,” he said.
“What are you going to do now, chop off my head?”
“I’d never do that. Not to you.”
“Fool. Do you think I really love you like your Sylvia?”
“No, not yet. But I know you felt the same thing I did when we kissed, the rightness of it. We’re meant to be together Sylvia. No matter what universe, we belong together. Just like Akako and Agnes.”
“What’s that fat cow have to do with anything?”
“In another universe, your sister was a man who fell in love with a woman named Akako,” Tim said. As he did, he squatted down and held the saw over her back. This would be delicate work, but it might be the only way to break the spell over her. “They got married, but then Akako’s husband was killed. So when she got the chance, she came to this world. There she met a witch named Agnes and again they fell in love. Do you see now?”
“It’s not the same at all. I don’t love you. I hate you! Why do you think I tried to arrest you?”
“Maybe you’re just confused. In any case, I know that in time you could love me. I want us to have that chance. But first you have to stop being Isis’s slave.”
“I’m no one’s slave!”
“She’s using you, Sylvia. She picked you to get at me. That’s what she does.” He turned on the saw. Over the whine of the motor he shouted, “I’ll try not to make this hurt.”
He brought the saw down on Sylvia’s back. She bucked a little, but with the weight of his suit on her wrists and her right leg crippled, there wasn’t much she could do. “Moving will only make it worse.”
“Good, go ahead and cripple me! As if you haven’t humiliated me enough already.”
He stopped the saw to look into her eyes. “I’m not trying to humiliate you, Sylvia. I care about you too much for that. I just want to help you.”
“You call this helping?”
“Just hold still.” He turned the saw back on to finish his cut along the back of her armor. From what he could tell, he hadn’t hit her skin or especially her vulnerable bones. The more difficult part was to peel the black armor away; the metal—if it really were metal—resisted him as if it were alive. His awkward position didn’t help his leverage much either. In the end, the raw strength of his suit allowed him to peel the armor back.
With her back exposed, he took her right arm and eased up on her wrist enough so he could slide her arm out of the armor. She tried to bat at him with it, but he caught it in time. “You’re only going to hurt yourself doing that.”
To his surprise, she began to cry. “Please don’t do this. Don’t make me go back to what I was. I don’t want to be a weak nothing again.”
He let go of her hand to touch her hair, which had gone slack now as Isis’s influence over her waned. “You’re not a weak nothing. You’re the strongest woman I know other than Emma.”
“No. I couldn’t stop you just like I couldn’t save Charlotte.”
“Who?”
“My partner. Detective Donovan. I’d wanted to work with her since I was a kid. She was my idol. And I killed her.”
“I’m sure you didn’t. Not really.”
“I might as well have. I got a tip that Erik the Red was moving some drugs down on the docks. I was too young and stupid to realize it was a trap. Me and Charlotte went down to check it out, but it was a trap. The bastards hadn’t been able to bribe Charlotte or threaten her into playing ball. So they went after her one weakness: me. I led her into the ambush and they killed her.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Sylvia. You didn’t know.”
“That doesn’t matter! She’s dead because of me!” Sylvia turned her head so he could see her eyes glowing again. “I was too weak to save her, but I don’t have to be anymore. Isis has given me what I need. I’ll never be too weak again, not with her power.”
“But what you’re doing is wrong. You’re not helping people, not like you were as a police officer. You’re only helping Isis enslave humanity.”
“No! We’re going to save humanity. We’re going to rebuild the world, to make it a better place. No more Erik the Reds. There will only be Isis—and me.”
He didn’t see any choice now but to yank her out of the armor. He pulled her other arm free and then wrapped his arms around her chest. She slapped at him until she realized the futility of this and went limp. She unleashed a primal scream as he pulled her legs out of the armor.
Once she was free, he set her gently on the floor; he kept her on her stomach so she wouldn’t lie on her wounded calf. As she sobbed, her hands reached towards the armor. “No, I need it—”
“You don’t need it, Sylvia. You’ve never needed it.” He took off his right gauntlet followed by his helmet. With his bare hand he touched her cheek. “Everything you’ve ever needed is inside you.”
He leaned down to kiss her; he hoped that like in the old fairy tales his kiss would snap the old witch’s spell. Just like in the bar, her kiss felt identical to the Sylvia he had known, the woman he had loved. She resisted at first, but gradually she gave in until she kissed him back.
When they finally had to pull away, he saw her eyes no longer glowed. They had gone wide, to stare at him as if for the first time. “What’s going on here?” she asked. “Where the hell am I?”
“You’ve been hurt but you’re safe now.” He put on the helmet again to cover his face. “No one’s going to hurt you anymore.”
She nodded slightly at this and then her body went slack. He let her sag to the floor, to rest. He would have to find a first aid kit somewhere to do what he could about that leg so it didn’t get infected. He only hoped he hadn’t done any permanent damage to her.
He got up to collect the pieces of the Black Dragoon’s armor when a window smashed open. Tim stuck his head out the doorway, one dart gun raised. He lowered the weapon a moment later out of shock.
A Pegasus stood in the hallway, its front hoof pawing at the carpet. The winged horse snorted as it tossed its head. “Easy, girl,” Emma said. She patted the Pegasus’s neck and stroked its white mane. “It’s all right.”
As she slid off the saddle and came towards him, he realized it wasn’t Emma but Joanna’s mother Dr. Reed. Akako jumped down behind her; the two women looked none the worse for smashing through a window; they didn’t have so much as a chunk of glass in their hair.
“Are you all right?” Dr. Reed asked.
“I’m fine,” Tim said.
“Where’s Emma?”
“Probably upstairs, fighting Isis.”
“You let her go up there alone?”
“Sylvia ambushed us and we got separated.”
“Sylvia?” Akako said.
“She’s in there. She’s sleeping right now, but she’s hurt.” He was glad he still had the helmet closed so they couldn’t
see him blush. “I had to cut her leg. Isis made her a Black Dragoon.”
“A what?”
“A monster,” Akako said. She patted Tim’s shoulder. “You did the right thing.”
Akako went into the lunchroom and returned a minute later. “It’s bad, but it shouldn’t be too bad if we can get her treated. I’ll get her out of here. You and Emma go upstairs.”
“There’s just a slight problem,” Tim said. “I lost one of my boosters. It’s going to take me a while to climb up there.”
“No problem. Stardust will take us.” Dr. Reed’s voice became like Renee Kim’s when she talked to Mr. Snuggles. “Can’t you, girl? You can take both of us.”
“I don’t know, this thing is pretty heavy.”
“Nonsense, she’s a magic horse. Aren’t you?”
Stardust the Pegasus tossed her mane as if to disagree, but Dr. Reed would accept no argument. “You can do it. I know you can.” She patted the horse’s neck and then climbed onto the saddle.
Tim didn’t have an easy time to get onto the horse’s back. With his one booster he managed to catapult himself onto Stardust’s back; the horse whinnied and bucked until Dr. Reed settled her down. “It’s all right,” she said to the horse. “He’s on now.”
Tim tried to straighten himself out so he wouldn’t be stuck looking at the horse’s rear as they flew. He settled himself into an uncomfortable position as Stardust began to turn around in the hallway. He turned to wave at Akako, who waved back to them. “Good luck,” she said to them as the Pegasus ran forward.
Stardust didn’t try to flap her wings until they were out the window, plunging towards the ground. Tim closed his eyes; he didn’t want to watch as they smashed into the sidewalk below. When he opened his eyes, they glided through the air. Stardust beat her bird-like wings to gain more altitude and whinnied again.
“I knew you could do it,” Dr. Reed said. “Now let’s go take care of Isis.”
Tim wished he felt that confident about their chances. He just hoped Akako would be able to get Sylvia to safety, though if they lost, he doubted there would be anywhere safe for her or anyone else.
***
Emma barely managed to get the Sword of Justice up in time to fend off Louise’s attack. She staggered back another step; she knew before long Louise would force her against a wall. From there it would just be a matter of time until Louise landed a blow and then finished Emma off.
She cursed herself for the thousandth time for being so short-sighted back in France. She should have known Isis would trick her, would take Louise anyway and then use her as a weapon. Emma had never imagined that the weapon might be the scarlet armor she had worn for the last nine years. To be killed by her own daughter with the sword that had been her own was the kind of sick joke Isis would conceive. Not for the first time Emma had vastly underestimated the depth of Isis’s evil.
The fight had gone on for what seemed like days; Emma tried every trick she could think of only for Louise to keep pace with her. Gradually she had to accept that Louise was a better warrior than her, probably more due to her father’s genetic material than anything. Jim had not liked to fight, but he had never held Emma’s reservations about it either. Louise had that same tenacity, which along with her youth and Isis’s influence made her much deadlier. Emma needed every ounce of experience she’d gained in the last nine years just to hold her own.
There was one thing she hadn’t tried yet, one thing Louise couldn’t do with her armor. She waited until their blades were locked again and then shifted her left hand subtly, just enough to touch Louise’s forearm. Electric current surged from her glove, through the metal of Louise’s armor. It wasn’t enough of a charge to kill her or even knock her out, just enough to stagger Louise for a moment, to give Emma an opening.
She used this to stab Louise in the left thigh. Emma’s heart broke as Louise cried out in pain. It was far from a mortal wound, but at least it would slow her down a little. She wisely took a step back and leaned to her right to keep the wound less exposed. “You bitch!” Louise snarled. She raised the gold Sword of Justice again. “You should have finished me when you had the chance.”
“I can’t kill you, Katya. You’re my baby.”
“I’m not anyone’s baby. I’m a grown-up!”
“No matter how old you are, you’ll always be my baby,” Emma said, to echo what her mother had told her long ago. “And I’ll always love you no matter what you do.”
“I don’t want your love. You killed my father.”
“Yes, I did.” She tore off the helmet and tossed it away so Louise could see her face. “I shouldn’t have let him go to Russia with me. I should never have gotten him involved. But he wanted to come because he loved you too and he wanted to make sure his daughter grew up safe and happy.”
“No! My father wasn’t the Sewer Rat. He wasn’t.” Louise took a wild swing that Emma easily deflected. She heard Louise sniffle beneath the visor. “My father wasn’t some dirty scavenger. He was a great man.”
“Your father wasn’t just a scavenger. He was an artist. A kind, gentle man. He saved my life with his love. The same love that conceived you.”
“No,” Louise said, though less forcefully. “You’re trying to trick me.”
“I would never lie to you, Katya. I love you.”
“I don’t need your love!” Louise dragged her left leg as she charged forward. Emma easily swept aside this clumsy attack. Though it pained her to do so, she also swept Louise’s injured leg out from under her. Louise toppled to the floor; the Sword of Justice fell from her hand. Before Louise could call it back, Emma stepped on the blade again.
With another twinge of pain, Emma lanced the silver Sword of Justice into Louise’s right thigh. Tears came to her eyes as her daughter’s scream echoed throughout the Temple of Isis. Louise tried to stand, but the pain in her legs made it too difficult; she collapsed onto her back. She reached up to take off her helmet and tossed it aside as Emma had. “Go on and finish it,” she said.
Emma shook her head. She bent down to pick up the gold Sword of Justice. The blade showed no reaction to her touch, though it still glowed yellow from so much evil around it. She tucked the sword into her belt, where she hoped it wouldn’t be able to do any more damage.
She squatted down beside Louise, to look into those eyes that were a mirror of her own set into a face with Jim’s features. She was the perfect hybrid of them, the ideal product of their love. “I’m sorry, baby,” she said. She reached out with her free hand to brush Louise’s hair back from her face. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
“You promised,” Louise whispered. “You promised not to leave me. You lied.”
“I didn’t have a choice. I was only trying to keep you safe.”
“I kept waiting for you in the nursery. I kept waiting for you to come. But you didn’t. You couldn’t save me because you’re not my real mommy. Isis saved me.”
“That’s not true. Isis is the one who put you in that nursery. Isis is the one who made me a baby so I couldn’t help you.” She stroked Louise’s tangled hair; a slight smile came to her face. “I’m here now. And I always will come back for you. No matter how long it takes or where I have to go, I’ll never leave you.”
Louise sat up just enough to put her arms around Emma’s neck. “I’m sorry, Mommy.”
“I am too, baby.”
Even as they hugged, she felt Louise’s hands slip away. Her arms retracted into the armor; her legs followed suit, as if she were a turtle going back into her shell. Her breasts flattened and shrank along with the rest of her body. Her face became smaller and her cheeks turned pudgier until the face that looked back at Emma was that of the two-year-old she had left behind.
Emma unbuckled the breastplate of the armor to free Louise from it. She pulled the golden cape from the armor and used this to wrap around Louise, to protect her from Isis’s magic. Then she picked up her little girl and pressed Louise to her chest. “It’s all right, ba
by. Mommy’s here.”
“I wanna go home,” Louise whimpered.
“I know. So do I. But we can’t just yet.”
“That’s very touching,” Isis’s voice rumbled. Emma looked around for the goddess, but she was nowhere in sight. “I should have known your daughter would be just as weak as you.”
“It’s over, Isis. You’ve lost.”
“I disagree,” Isis said. The statue behind the altar began to tremble as if from an earthquake. Its eyes glowed bright red, the same red as those of the awful shadow woman Emma had seen when she was a vampire in Isis’s realm. Louise screamed and buried her head against Emma’s shoulder. Emma watched in horror as the statue broke away from the wall. The hundred-foot-tall Isis glared down at her and said, “We’ve only just started.”
***
Even as she ran for her life with Louise, Emma had to admit turning herself into a hundred-foot-tall monster was just the sort of thing Isis would do. What it lacked in practicality or common sense it made up for with grandeur. Isis had always loved the big, flashy gesture over something more conservative.
The only hope for Emma at this moment was to use this against Isis. While Isis’s size was intimidating, it also made her bulky and slow while Emma was far more maneuverable. She felt like a mouse running from an elephant as she ran across the temple. Isis stomped after her and smashed into a smaller statue of herself. Emma zigzagged around, in the hope she might topple the beast.
“Where are we going?” Louise asked.
“I’m not sure yet, baby,” Emma said. What she really wanted was to lure Isis close enough to the walls that she might break one open. If Emma got lucky enough, Isis might fall from the temple to plunge to the ground like King Kong. Though that might not matter since Isis could make the ground into foam rubber or give herself wings if she wanted.
There was only one thing that could really destroy Isis: Emma’s heart. It had nearly done the job before and from what Merlin said, it likely would this time. The problem became in how she could possibly give Isis her heart. It wasn’t like the goddess was dumb enough to try to devour it a second time. If she did cut it out of her chest, how would she get it to Isis? She couldn’t ask Louise to do something like that; she was just a baby.
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 182
