by Mark Lingane
The minutes crawled by. Eventually he stood up, continued removing his daughter from the body bag, and laid her out on the altar. She was dressed in a short white nightdress. It was obvious she was wearing no secrets.
Derek stepped back and bowed his head. He stood looking down for a minute before leaving the church.
We moved to the window and watched him approach his car, walking as though in a trance, bumping into things as his path wandered from side to side. The car door squeaked open.
"I don't think he can do it," Angelina whispered. "Look at the way he treated her. When it comes to the act ..." She shook her head. She glanced at me, looking thoughtful.
Derek staggered forward into the headlights, struggling to guide a barely conscious Laura. As they crept forward toward the great gates, I could see a set of cuffs clipped around Laura's wrists. Her head lolled around as she stumbled forward, tripping over the smallest obstacles. Clouds floated over the moon, and the churchyard went dark. The wind picked up and slammed the gates closed. They creaked loudly as Derek pushed them open. The sudden wind was making it a challenge for him.
There was a fluttering overhead as several crows flew in low before landing on a few of the gravestones. One crow watched Derek and Laura, uttering an occasional caw.
The two made their way through the wide doors of the church. Derek did a double take as he noticed the priest for the first time. The priest, crucified against the wall, was sagging from his wrists, his clothes dripping blood. Derek crossed himself.
"A bit misguided," whispered Angelina, "considering what he's planning on doing."
"I got to do something," I said, and started to stand up.
Angelina pulled me back down. "You can't go," she said. I gave her a dark look. "If you go down, well, in Derek's eyes you're another male who can do the deed with his daughter. If something goes wrong, we're one step closer to the situation we're trying to avoid. What if he has a weapon? Have you got one?"
She was right. She nodded and slowly made her way down from the balcony.
39
Derek and Laura made their way down the aisle to the rear of the church, stepping over pieces of debris and scattered Bible pages. Derek lowered Laura down to the floor and leaned her against the altar. She had no strength to hold herself upright and slipped down onto the stone floor. The clouds cleared and moonlight shone through a hole in the ceiling directly onto the altar. Sweat was pouring from her and her skin gleamed in the dim light. She was barely conscious.
I heard him mutter, "It's time."
There was the tip-tap-tip of the confident strut of high heels across the stone. Derek looked out from behind the statues.
Mina stood at the entrance to the church, her curves highlighted by the moonlight. She had a cigarette poised in her lips in a long silver holder.
Derek glanced around the walls. To his left was a medieval suit of armor, which held a large sword, and a more manageable axe. With his face full of rage, he lunged over to the suit and pulled down the axe. The armor topped over and crashed to the floor.
"You," he screamed to Mina. "You did this to my daughter."
With the axe in his hand, he charged at Mina. He swung it wildly, emotions overriding judgment. Mina easily dodged his mad swipes and reeled back from his screams. His strength soon weakened, age getting the better of him, and his lunges with the axe became more sporadic. In the end he sagged to his knees, head bowed.
Mina laughed and walked up to him, strutting her Miami blues. She placed a shoe on his body and pushed him backward. "You stupid man. Why did you have to get so caught up?"
He knelt before her, mesmerized by her.
"You men are so dull and depressingly predictable. Once they get your scent, they'll track you until they die. I can see it in your eyes. It's hard to dodge the affairs of the heart."
"Dodge this." Angelina stepped out from the shadows and fired.
There was a loud crack, followed by the sound of the air being ripped apart. Angelina lowered her gun, stepped back and glared at Mina. Mina looked down. There was a stake sticking out of her stomach. She fell to her knees, clutching at herself. Her head fell forward.
Phoenix fell screaming from the sky, his great wings unfolded. His skin glowed red; black pupils stood out in his yellow eyes. He bared his oversized teeth and stopped between the two women. He spat at Angelina and brought around one of his massive claws, knocking her sideways across the church. He strode toward her, his heavy feet thumping across the stone floor. He reached down, wrapped his great hand around her throat, and lifted her up to the level of his face. She struggled ineffectually against his strength.
"I've been waiting to get even with you," he growled. "I might take your body as my reward."
She thrashed her legs, managing to get in several kicks, but achieved nothing. The sound of distant barking echoed from beyond the graveyard. Two bright lights shone in through the church doors. Phoenix raised his hands to shield his eyes against the fierce beams.
Out of the blur of light bounced a hound, initially a thin-sticked object, quickly expanding within the light to become a huge dog. The black dog leaped, red eyes focused on Phoenix, baring its enormous fangs, which it sank into the arm holding Angelina. Phoenix shrieked. The dog dug its fangs in deeper.
Phoenix released Angelina. She fell to the floor and rolled away. Smoke rose from his arm. He tried to shake the dog free, but the fangs were embedded too deeply.
Derek ran up behind Phoenix and smashed him over the head with the shovel. Phoenix fell forward. Within the blink of an eye, the dog had its fangs digging into Phoenix's throat. Phoenix lay as still as a portrait. Every twitch or excessive breath was met by a deep growl.
Angelina leaped to her feet and ran to Derek. She grabbed him by the collar. "Where is Van? I couldn't save him from the furnace you left him in. Derek, you can't bring your daughter back like this."
"Your accent, it's different," Derek said to Angelina. "You were lying to me."
"Well, you put me in a freezer expecting me to die, so we have some degree of equilibrium, although I owe you a lot more pain. Give up this foolish endeavor."
"You can't tell me what to do. I've read the books. We can bring back the dead." Derek tried to push her away, but her grip was unbreakable.
"My family wrote the books. What comes back isn't the person, just a piece of reanimated meat. They took my parents. You don't think I haven't thought long and hard about this? You can't do it. It's wrong. You've got to let it go."
"I can't let it go, she was my daughter. I failed at everything with her. You can't stop me."
Angelina withdrew her second gun, stepped back, and aimed it at him. "Yes I can, and don't think I won't."
"Aren't you the plucky one?" Mina said. She was sitting with her back against one of the statues, watching them closely.
Angelina glanced over. "I'm surprised I managed to hit you. You move too slowly to be one of them."
"I am the ultimate one." Mina smiled. "Their queen. I don't need to move fast." She placed her hand against her stomach. Blood was dripping out. She examined her hand, at the blood smeared over her palm. It was a deep, dark red.
"You're a royal pain in the ass," Angelina said.
Mina smiled again.
"Why is this a temple to you?" Angelina asked.
"Shouldn't every girl have one? God knows men put us up on enough pedestals. This is only one step up from that, taking it to the max." She stood up, wincing as the stake ripped her insides.
Derek tried to move quickly, but Angelina turned and waved the end of her gun at him. He slowed and raised his hands. She returned her attention to Mina.
"This has been built for you," Angelina said, "and it's very old. I think you are old. Very old."
"That's not a nice thing to say to a lady. But I have a good skin regime if you'd like to know."
"How long have you been their queen?"
Mina laughed. "How long does memory last?"
&nbs
p; "It lasts as long as there's someone to remember. If I stop you, the memory will die. You'll no longer be a queen."
Mina laughed. "You can't stop what's destined to happen. You're dead. Your time is over and there's nothing you can do about it."
"I think you'll find I'm holding the cards. I have your angel, and although we have a male here in Derek, I can easily shoot him. What's so important about tonight?"
Derek's face dropped at the casual mention of his name linked with imminent death.
"Look up," Mina said.
Keeping the gun solidly in her grip, Angelina glanced up. She gasped.
"Not many humans have seen that vision. You'll be the last."
"What is it?"
"Creation. Enough power to change everything, to jumpstart a universe, or wipe out an entire race and start a new one. Power beyond dreams. And all wielded by whoever holds the rood."
"Where is it?"
She smiled back. "You'll find out soon enough."
"No. This ends now. Van isn't here. You have no mate."
"I don't need him. I wanted him, who wouldn't? But any male will do. Why do you think we dress them up so they all look the same? One lets you down, or bores you, or gets too needy, you move onto the next."
"No, Van was too important. He tested green. I've worked out what that means."
"Have you now? My, you are a clever little girl." Mina stepped forward. And again she looked at her blood-soaked hand. She licked it. Her eyes changed from deep blue to dark red. "But I'm telling you now that the only end is for you." She smiled, revealing a set of fangs, and leaped forward.
Angelina kicked upward, spearing Mina with her stiletto boot, spun and fired her gun. The stake shot out and buried itself deep in Mina's chest, in the center of her heart. Mina collapsed to the ground. Her eyes closed.
"Okay," whispered Angelina. She looked around nervously, looking at the bodies around her. "Demon trapped by crazed demon dog. Evil vampire queen dead. Disturbed psycho father immobilized through shock. I think it's all under control." She let out a sigh.
A lightning bolt ten feet wide struck down out of the turbulent sky above. The light hung mystically in the air for several moments before the air was ripped apart by the soundwave that followed. The impact knocked everyone to the floor and slammed the church doors closed. The lightning ceased. Everyone's eyes saw nothing but red.
Levi strode out of the lightning bolt, carrying the rood. He stood in the center of the church and slammed the rood down onto the stone tiles, which cracked under the force.
The dog cowered before him, but didn't let go of Phoenix's throat. Levi strode over to the dog, picked it up by the scruff of its neck--ripping out Phoenix's throat in the process--and threw it across the church. It yelped as it crashed into the far wall, falling into a silent heap. The dog shivered and dissolved into human form. Inspector Watcher lay unconscious.
Levi cast the rood aside, and it floated beside him wrapped in a pale green glow. Another sweep of his arm, and Levi knocked Derek into the pews. He fell heavily to the floor and lay there, unmoving.
Levi glanced at Mina. "Are you okay?"
"You're late. I'll survive. My clothes are ruined and I don't want to know the state of my hair." She stood up and ripped the spear from her chest. She concentrated, and the wound disappeared, leaving bloodied holes in her dress. "Can't you ever follow simple instructions? What is hard to understand about lying low, and turning up at a certain time?"
"It's their fault." Levi strode over to Angelina and grabbed her. "Always distracting us." He glared into Angelina's terrified eyes. "I've known you and your kind for centuries. You're always hunting us, always a thorn, always ruining our plans. The pain you've caused us all has been immeasurable. Now it's time to destroy your kind."
"Good," Mina said. "She's the last hunter. Well, she says she's the last, but the records were never good. There might be others."
"No, I'd be able to sense them." Levi sniffed the air noisily. "There are no others."
"You can't sense a hunter. You couldn't sense a bloodburger if it was directly under your nose."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do. I don't care if there are others. I'll kill her anyway, and then there'll be one less."
Levi gripped Angelina around the neck. She fought against his strength, but it was futile.
"The battle with them has been raging for so long," Mina said. "The sickness that is humanity has left a deep mark on us. It will be strange having an era end."
"Why do you care?" Levi said. "They're nothing but vermin that seek to destroy us."
"Care? I don't care. But before you kill her you need to know one thing. She carries the blood from the countess."
Levi hesitated. His eyes shifted uneasily.
"I can't wait to see how you react to this," Mina said. "She's your great-granddaughter."
40
I watched the procession of unbelievable revelations below as they tumbled behind one another like a continental train wreck. I noticed a rear stairwell that would allow me to descend while keeping me hidden from view, not that they were focusing on anything except their own little melodrama.
Levi loosened his grip and stared at the curvaceous bombshell locked in his grasp. He lowered his arms and Angelina's feet touched the ground. She fought for a few breaths, filling her gasping lungs.
"That's a lie," he said to Mina.
"Oh, trust me, I've checked. I've been speaking with many old gravediggers who know real history. I've followed the family line all over the world, to here."
"It's impossible. The countess died."
"Do you know why they hunt us?" Mina sauntered over to Levi and ran her hand over his muscled torso. "It's because of you."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. They only started hunting us after your countess died. Look at her. She hates you. She doesn't know why, but I do. You do too, deep in that big, black heart of yours. You have the truth inside you. Let me remind you of Mircalla Karnstein."
Levi hesitated. An emotion washed over him, something foreign, something painful. He lowered his head. "The countess. No, there would be some clue."
He still held Angelina by the throat. He twisted her head back and forth slowly, examining her features. "It's impossible. She died."
Angelina, still fighting for air, managed to squeeze out one sentence. "How can I be related?"
"Levi was once in love," Mina said in a singsong voice, dancing between the statues, "and like all men became a fool because of it. He met the countess one night. She was meant to be particularly pure and untouched by man, but she was sick. When Levi sucked the life from her, he sucked the sickness and she became half-human half-other. He granted the bitch equal status amongst us. That was his first act of betrayal."
Mina stopped dancing and looked at Levi. "Of course I never knew what you saw in her. She was so skinny and useless, just a pretty plaything, a distraction. Even her hair was the wrong color. It was black like those diseased gypsies."
Levi bared his fangs and growled at her.
She laughed. "Anyway, he took pity. How does that happen, Levi? A demon feeling sorry for a human."
"You didn't fall. You'll never know what it's like being cast out. You don't know the eternal loneliness and pain."
"Don't talk to me about eternal," she spat. "I've been waiting millennia after millennia for this." She pointed to the altar. "You should've been helping. I'm your queen, but you couldn't leave her alone."
"She was dying, and I couldn't save her. I couldn't watch it happen without doing something." He cast Angelina aside and strode toward Mina. "I went to Him, on my knees, to ask for assistance, but He said no."
"And He said no." She looked at him with a self-satisfied smirk. She laughed again and waved a finger at him. "You're a fool. I watched this sorry state of affairs unfold. I knew what you were planning. I told Him you'd be coming and what would happen if He agreed to your request."
"You betrayed me. She was ev
erything to me," Levi roared.
"I betrayed no one! You're the one who complicated matters. I am the queen. You were planning to put her in my place."
"That's a lie."
"Is it? Look into my eyes and tell me that again. I command you."
Levi's head twisted from side to side, filled with pain. "You think of no one but yourself. She understood. She could have fixed everything. We could have gone home."
"Home? That was never going to happen."
"You don't know that."
Mina sighed. "I would've thought the words 'you are banished forever' were self-explanatory. You were so angry and obsessed you never knew what happened afterward. You never knew her condition. She gave birth to triplet girls. Those girls grew and saw the pain of loss and love gone wrong, and they vowed revenge on all of us. They became the slayers and that's what they've been doing for centuries--running around and killing my beautiful people."
Fury rose in Mina's face. She stormed over to Angelina and pointed at her. "You think it was about right and wrong, good and evil, keeping the world safe. Well, I'm here to tell you it was always about revenge," she hissed.
And it's at a point like that when all logic seems to have disappeared and the inmates have taken over the asylum that you need to go where the current is taking you.
"Van! You made it," Mina cried as she wheeled around. "I knew you'd come."
Her transition from madwoman to temptress was so smooth I almost questioned my own memory that she could ever have been anything else.
"Let them all go," I said.
"I will free them of their pitiful lives. Just like I'll do with you," Levi replied.
"No!" Mina cried. She reached toward me.
Levi clapped his hands together and time froze. They were all riveted to the spot, their faces a combination of fear and shock.
"You and me," Levi snarled at me.
His blow came in like a thunderbolt, and I felt the force crack all the way down my back as it threw me into the air. I crashed into a pew and slid across the floor, finally crashing into the far wall. The dust billowed over me. I coughed--
