by Tim Marquitz
Katon glared at me for a while before finally giving in with a shallow nod. He might not understand the specifics of what I was asking of him, but he knew better than anyone we couldn’t trust Veronica. Never had, never could. He’d pointed that out to me a million times in the past, as a matter of fact. I’d never listened, of course, but he was much smarter than me.
“So, what’s the plan?” Rahim asked, resignation hardening the question.
“I’ll tell you when we get there.” I smiled and waved Shaw to her feet. “Let’s go, 007.” As soon as she stood, I grabbed her arm and pressed a greenie knife to her ribs. “You know the deal,” I told her, casting a raised eyebrow glance at Venai. “You two play nice and we all go home. Fuck with me and I reenact the dinner scene from Silence of the Lambs. We’re all hungry enough. We’d just need to find a nice Chianti.”
Venai growled but didn’t lunge at me. That was a start.
“I still owe you for Scarlett, so mind your manners.”
Shaw raised a hand to calm the Nephilim. “Lead the way.”
I motioned for Rahim to open the way out, and then sent Venai after him.
“Be careful, Frankie.”
“You too.” I nodded to Karra, blowing her a kiss. “Keep Katon safe.” With that, I headed for the exit, Shaw and I scrambling up the ladder awkwardly together while I held the knife to her. It was rather more enjoyable than I would have expected; the rubbing against each other bit, not the knife holding. She was a pretty little dead thing with hard curves in all the right places. Only the memory of her ordering her DSI flunkies to shoot me in the head kept me from enjoying the moment too much.
It’s a sad world when a man lets a bullet get between him and a good time.
Once everyone was outside, the tree-quarters sealed, and we’d made sure the initial rush of critters had run its course, I nudged Shaw forward.
“All right, bloodhound. Get to sniffing.”
She met my gaze with ice, but a gentle prod of the blade took some of the chill out of her stare. Well, it got her moving, at least.
“Track down the portals and maybe, just maybe, we won’t have to rely on the half-dead angel back there to get us out of Dodge.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What is it you’re not telling us about our little adventure, Trigg?”
“It’s all on a need to know basis, Shaw,” I told her. “You should be used to that by now, seeing how your organization of half-wits and cutthroats is funded by the government of ‘Murica. Now let’s get to it before something bigger and uglier than Venai there wanders by and uses us as a scratching post.”
If I hadn’t pissed them off before, I most certainly did then. Shaw drew in a deep breath—though I wondered if it was for show since I really didn’t think she needed to breathe either—and tugged me along without saying another word. Venai shuffled alongside us, Rahim and Rala a step or two behind the Nephilim. If things went south, I could count on Rahim slowing Venai down just long enough for me to gut Shaw, but I was hoping that wasn’t how it all played out. With as many greenies as I saw lurking about the place, we would need all the cannon fodder we could get when we stormed the mountain, and even more so when we came across the guardians.
That said, Shaw was a predator through and through. You didn’t plead logic or try to compromise. While I expected Veronica to be sneaky if she got the opportunity, Shaw was weighing every instant against her chances. She was still there because her life depended on it. As long as that stayed constant, we were cool. The minute she felt safe, someone—specifically me—would catch a shanking.
Shaw kept quiet and did her part, as best I could tell. She stood still for a few moments before heading off in a direction that seemed reasonably consistent with where I’d spied the portals above. We might have done this without her, but it would require someone to be up in the trees hunting for the shimmer of the gates in the inky blackness. No telling if they could even be seen, so this made more sense from that aspect even if it sucked depending on Shaw.
She moved along for a long while, her head on a swivel. It’d probably been a half hour when I heard the heavy thump-slide of something moving through the woods in our direction. I grabbed Shaw and pressed her to a nearby tree, waving the others in for cover. Everyone on high alert, it only took a second before they were huddled against the bark alongside me as the sound grew louder and louder. We stood there in silence, waiting as the thing shuffled closer, seeming no further away than the other side of the tree trunk. Then it went quiet.
A furtive peek around the corner left me without a clue as to what I’d heard. There was nothing but empty space staring back at me.
“Uh, Frank.” Rala nudged me with an elbow. There was a quaver in her voice I didn’t like much.
I turned around at the moist exhalation of breath, which could be described only as a displeased hiss, and stared up into the face of a monster.
“Shit…”
The unfortunate hybrid of a polar bear and bull glared down at me, its ivory horns three feet across from point to point. The thing rose up on its hind hooves and spread it arms wide, foot long claws gleaming in the preternatural gloom. Orange eyes glistened with malevolence as it bared its teeth. Alternating white and brown stripes marred the fur across its muscled belly. It loosed a bone-rattling rumble and reached for us.
That’s when I stabbed it in the gut. Or at least tried to. The tip of my spear barely sunk past its fur, striking the steel wall of muscle and coming to an abrupt stop.
After which, it promptly slammed my head into the tree with a vicious swipe of its paw. Stars exploded as my brain collided with the inside of my skull. I hadn’t even felt the impact, realizing who knows how much later that I was sitting at the base of the tree trunk as the creature sounded a rampage a few yards away. It took another moment before my vision stopped wobbling and I could see what was going on.
Venai had apparently met it head on, wrapping her hands about its wrists and wrestling it. Giant horns hooked toward her face as the Polartaur tried to gore her, its head snapping side to side. The Nephilim ducked at each attempt, but it was clear she was on the losing end of the grappling match. For all her strength, she was on the defensive, teeth and horns whipping her way every second or two.
I scrambled to my feet as Shaw darted in alongside the thing and hit it. No weapons, she might as well have been tickling it, her fists thudding into its ribs. The creature ignored her and focused on Venai. I watched as the Nephilim’s arms trembled and began to buckle inward. She was losing.
Rahim stepped in to help. Able to reach its face with his long arms, he cracked it right on its bull snout with his mace. The creature screeched its agony and stumbled, Venai leaning into its chest and driving it backwards toward the tree behind it—my tree, as a matter of fact.
I yelped and dodged out of the way just as the dance couple careened into it with a resounding thud. Venai and the Polartaur screamed in each other’s faces, but I couldn’t tell which one spit more, a silvery sheen misting the air between them. It was clear, however, who the better in-fighter was. It wasn’t the Nephilim.
A massive hoof squished Venai’s foot, nearly buckling her. She cried out and her leg wobbled, allowing the creature to gain some traction. Its shoulder flexed and its arms pushed Venai’s back and down as though they were playing a game of Mercy.
There was a sharp crack and Venai dropped to her knees with a curse. I could see the fingers of her left hand twisted backward in an uncomfortable angle that could only mean they were broken. She grunted as she held on, defying the monster a true victory, but it wouldn’t be long before her other hand joined the wreckage of the first.
Rahim swung his mace, but the critter wasn’t having any of round two. It turned its horn into the blow, redirecting the attack with relative ease, doing the same to the follow up shot. The muscles on its neck stood out like steel cords each time it parried. Rala hung back with wide eyes as it knocked aside a third shot from Rahim, and I realized I w
as doing the same damn thing. We weren’t getting anywhere taking it on like we were. That’s when it hit me.
“Let it go,” I shouted at Venai and Rahim while running over to stand right in front of it. Venai didn’t have much of a choice but to hang on for dear life, but Rahim was in a better position. “Get her clear,” I told him.
He met my eyes for maybe a split-second before reaching out to grab ahold of Venai’s wrist. As soon as he did, I took a page from George St. Pierre’s book and broke out in a Superman punch, clocking the thing right between the eyes with everything I had. To both of our surprise, its head snapped back as if it’d been in a car wreck, the back of its skull rebounding off the pink trunk behind it. It barked out a muffled grunt, more of surprise than pain, but the blow was enough to make it let go of Venai. Rahim yanked her aside, sending her stumbling over to Rala and Shaw.
It was mission accomplished. I had its full attention.
Yay me.
It responded by lowering its head and charging. I responded by running for my life. Mess with the bull-bear and get the you-know-whats up your you-know-where. Fortunately, that was what I’d expected it to do. And since Hobbs was built for speed, I managed to stay just ahead of the critter. I ran straight forward, dipping down as I did, dragging my fingers through the dark soil. Once I had a handful of it clenched in my fist, I veered off a little as the creature closed. I was cutting it close.
The huff of its pursuit right behind me, I tossed the dirt over my shoulder. As soon as I heard the snork of it breathing it in, I dug my feet in and leapt to the right, out of its path…and away from the massive tree trunk not ten feet away.
The Polartaur snuffed the dirt from its nose and eyes and ran right into the tree, burying its horns six inches into the meat of it. The impact was a peal of thunder, the sound echoing through the pink woods. The creature’s legs buckled beneath it, hooves kicking but gathering no traction as it tried to figure out what happened.
“Mace,” I yelled to Rahim, and he obliged, tossing me the weapon. I caught it and spun back about as the Polartaur struggled to get its feet beneath it to leverage its horns free. I didn’t give it the chance to.
With all of my strength, I smashed the mace into the base of the creature’s skull. It was two rocks colliding with a deafening boom. The critter roared and frothed, but I hit it again, and again, and again, finally feeling the brick of its protective skull cracking beneath the assault. Another shot would likely finish it, but Shaw took matters into her own hands. I pulled back to swing but the wight got there first. She stepped past me and drove my discarded spear through the mushy head of the Polartaur, riding it in until the tip burst from the creature’s eye and clacked against the bark of the tree. She stepped back with a satisfied grin on her lips as the critter twitched and trembled, squirts of its lifeblood spewing red across the pinkness it was impaled to.
I gave it one last parting thump and ripped the spear out before Shaw could re-arm, giving her a wink. “Not quite a sandwich, but thanks for dinner, honey.”
She shook her head and crossed her arms across her chest. “You’re welcome.”
“If the two of you are done flirting, can we finish this madness and find the damn portals before we stumble across something else?” Rahim asked, moving over beside us with Rala. Venai clasped to her broken hand, but it was only her usual charm that registered on her pissed off face.
“No need,” Shaw answered. She shifted her gaze upwards. “We’re already here.”
Eighteen
With dinner chilling in the night air, we’d set to work. I still wasn’t entirely sure what I was trying to accomplish, but I was starting to get the picture.
We left Venai behind to babysit the bear-bull corpse since her hand was shattered and she’d be more of a liability than a help with what we needed to do. Besides, it was good to separate the DSI women to keep them from plotting too much. We also left Rahim there, but only until his part of the plot came around because he wasn’t any better off than the Nephilim. The rest of us climbed the tree Shaw pointed out and we found ourselves sitting atop the canopy, balanced precariously on a web of branches. There was nothing but pitch blackness above, the vicious roil of Tenebraen night.
“You sure this is the right spot?” I asked.
Shaw gave a subdued nod. “The portals have pulsed past with almost clock-like consistently since we’ve arrived.” She let her eyes wander the sky. “It should be soon, and they’ll do it again.”
“How about you?” I turned to Rala. “You ready?”
“As well as I can be,” she admitted. “I’m not totally sure I can do this.”
“You’ll do fine.” I wasn’t really sure she could do it either, but we needed to try and a false sense of confidence helped. And while I might be a better choice for what I had in mind for her part, seeing how I would be easier to lift, I felt it best that Rahim be the one to go along. It all seemed to make a weird sort of sense, so I was going with it.
“They’re coming,” Shaw told us, interrupting my uncertainty.
“Now or never,” I told the little alien.
She sighed but didn’t waste any effort on words. Hunkered down on a thick branch near the trunk, she willed her body to change. Seeing it amazed me each time, but before I knew it, the transformation was over. She huffed, folded her wings behind her, and jumped from the tree, disappearing through the colored foliage, leaving it waggling in her wake.
“Care to share your plans yet?”
“Just hoping to get a better idea of our interdimensional options.”
Shaw stared at me for a moment before letting out a quiet chuckle. “So you send the wizard and the alien child rather than go yourself?”
I nodded.
“You’re not a good liar considering your lineage, Trigg.”
I laughed. “No, maybe not, but that’s all you need to know right now.” I turned in my seat so our faces met. “Besides, I don’t see much point in letting you in on everything just so you can use it against us.”
She grinned. “Ah, so little trust you have.”
I grinned back. “Wonder why.”
Shaw shrugged. “I’m at a loss.”
Sure she was, but our little fencing match was interrupted by Rala winging her way through the trees again, Rahim clinging to her neck for dear life. His dark eyes gleamed with their wideness, but there wasn’t much time to determine if it was excitement or fear that had caused that, because the pair zipped into the darkness, aimed for the spot Shaw had pointed out moments earlier.
“Does this foolishness at least get us a step closer to returning to Earth?”
“Let’s hope so.” I watched as the orange of Rala’s coating rose higher and higher, enveloped by the darkness. They were on their own up there.
“There!” Shaw shouted, and I felt the dim pulse of the portals opening somewhere above us.
I couldn’t see more than the barest of flickers, but the lights were obvious enough that Rala couldn’t miss them from the air no matter how much the darkness muted their brightness. The only thing that worried me was that Rala was lugging Rahim along. Even minus his hand, the man was huge. She wasn’t used to being a pack mule or carrying passengers. Barely able to hold her shape on her own, lugging the wizard was going to cut into her wyvern time. If she couldn’t manage it, this little adventure would end with nothing more to show for it than dinner. I guess that wouldn’t be too bad, considering.
The shriek of a guardian put an exclamation point on that last thought. The damn things were bloodhounds when it came to these damn portals. It made me wonder if the creatures ever slept, but it only helped to confirm how much they were creatures of habit when it came to the gates. If we needed a distraction, we knew a good one to draw them out.
“They’d best hurry,” Shaw warned, and I could only agree. The dragon screamed again, much closer this time. A second sounded off right after.
If the dragon caught them midair, there was no cavalry to pull t
heir asses out of the fire. Fortunately, that worry didn’t last long as Rala whipped by us again, headed for the ground in a flurry of motion.
“After you,” I said, motioning for Shaw to follow them down.
Shaw started off without bitching, and I went after, ready to jump on her back should she try something. She didn’t bother. We made it down without issue. Rala kneeled in the dirt as her normal self, doing her damndest to catch her breath and recover from her change. Rahim hovered over her, his mace hanging protectively at his side.
“Get what you needed from up there?” Shaw asked him. He gave her a blank stare, neither confirming nor denying any of her suspicions. She just shrugged at his non-answer. “You’ve a better poker face than your partner there.” She gestured to me, but Rahim didn’t even look my way, which neither confirmed nor denied my own questions, which was flippin’ frustrating. It felt as though I was losing my mind.
Not wanting to give Shaw the opportunity to ponder on things, I cut the inquisition short. “Help me carry the Polartaur and let’s get moving. We’ve got some hungry folks to feed.”
Shaw raised an eyebrow, but lowered it without question when she saw what I was pointing at. She simply gestured to Venai and all three of us struggled to get the critter up and into a good position before we stumbled off toward the hidey hole. Rahim led the way, scooping Rala into his arms and carrying her. The kid had clearly hit the wall of her endurance. I only hoped I hadn’t pushed her too far. We were gonna need her before too long.
#
The trip back was fairly uneventful, with only one other critter making its presence known. Pissed from the last encounter, Venai dropped the bull-bear just long enough to knock the Sleestak thing out, before returning to take up her end again. We were off a second later and back at the hidey-hole shortly after.
