“Thanks.” I jumped to another rock. “So who are you, then?”
“I’m Basil,” he replied. “We’ve already been through that.”
“I know the name you’ve given me, but who are you?”
He stepped off the rock path and up to a section of the circle that had a big red “Exit” sign hanging in the air. That was a little awkward.
In response to my question, he removed his glasses and stared into my eyes.
His eyes were swirling pools of yellow that were spinning in opposing directions in a rhythmically hypnotic way.
“Wow,” I said. “That’s cool.”
He jolted upright and tilted his head at me.
“That’s odd.” He pulled out a mirror and looked at himself. “They seem to be working just fine. Let me try that again.”
He tucked the mirror away and then gave me a full stare.
I leaned in and studied his irises. They looked really sweet. I didn’t know if this was some kind of magic or a newfangled style of contact lenses, but they were awesome.
“Dude, those things are fantastic.”
Basil glanced away. “What the shit is going on?”
“With what?” I asked, confused.
“You should be dead.”
“I should?” I then touched my chest and stomach. “I’m not, right?”
He frowned at me. “No, you idiot.”
“Name-calling?”
“Sorry,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I just don’t understand it. I’ve stared at you. You’ve looked right into my eyes. Yet, you remain alive.”
“So?”
“So I’m a basilisk!”
I snapped my fingers and pointed at him.
“That’s the name I couldn’t remember. Man, it’s been driving me nuts. I knew I’d heard it time and again because the teachers really drove it home with us, you know? They were like, beware of the basilisk in level nine because he’ll—” I paused and looked up at him. “Wait, you were going to kill me just now?”
“Duh.”
“What the fuck, dude?” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “You said you were going to deliver me safely.”
“Over the lava pit, yes,” he replied, nodding. “And if you look behind you, you’ll see that I’ve done just that. But I wasn’t going to just let you leave.”
That was disheartening. Here I was thinking this was some kind of cool guy. Creepy as fuck, sure, but still cool. The hair, the look, the shades…it all rang “mojo.”
But…
“You’re a dick, man,” I said, shoving him in the chest.
His swirly eyes opened very wide.
“Did you just push me?”
“Fucking right, I did,” I said as I took a step toward him. “I oughta kick your ass right here and now.”
He held up his hands to protect himself.
There may have even been some whimpering going on.
I blinked.
“You’re kidding me,” I said as I lowered my fists. “You’re a wuss?”
“No,” he yelled in a pathetic voice.
“Oh, my God,” I cackled. “You’re a frickin’ wuss.”
“Don’t talk about me like that!”
I crossed my arms. “Or you’ll do what?”
“I…I…” He started sobbing.
“Ah jeez,” I said, laughing. “This is unbelievable. So you’re basically a badass as long as your freaky eye trick works, but if it doesn’t, you’re just a pussy.”
“I…”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
“All right, all right,” I said, hesitantly patting him on the shoulder. “Let it all out.”
Boy did he.
Basil must have cried for five minutes straight. There were so many tears that wisps of steam did come up when the water from his eyes reached the lava pit.
I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him or to berate the hell out of him. Fact was that this dude had probably killed tons of people over the years with his creepy stare. He was finally getting a taste of his own medicine.
Good.
“All right, Basil,” I said, lifting up his chin. “I’m not going to kick your ass, but I hope you’ve learned a lesson here.”
“What?”
“How you’re feeling right now is probably how everyone you’ve ever done the freaky eye-swirl thing to felt moments before they died.” I shook my head at him. “You should be ashamed.”
“I am,” he said as his eyes watered again. “I really, really am.”
I held up my hand to calm him down. He sniffed a couple of times and wiped his eyes.
“So when you said that I was delivering something to you that you dearly desired, you meant my life, right?”
“No,” he said, wiping his nose on his sleeve. That was blasphemous! His suit was gorgeous. I groaned at the vision of it but held my tongue. “I was referring to the dragon named Claire.”
“What about her?”
“She’s the one for me,” he said, staring off into the distance with a look of love on his face. “She has never come down to this level because she knows that I will ensnare her for all eternity.”
Interesting.
“You will?”
“Dragons cannot escape my eyes,” he explained, “and with one such as Claire, I shall use them to captivate her.”
That was cool, if he could manage it. I didn’t know much about basilisks, other than that entire “don’t look in their eyes” shit they drilled into us at the academy, but I assumed he had some way of taming a dragon.
“I do,” he said, proving that he could read my thoughts as well as the valkyries. “We met at a conference in the Netherworld. She was horrible, vile, deceitful…I fell in love instantly. But she had no desire to be with me.” His smile returned and he glanced back the way we came. “But I sense her in my lair now. She has arrived and she will stay here for all eternity, loving me as I have loved her.”
I kind of felt bad for the guy, seeing as how I had kind of gotten to know this Claire chick a bit. She wasn’t bound to love anyone but herself. She’d use Basil and then spit him out.
“You know that she’s—”
“I know her very well, Ian,” Basil said. “Better than she knows herself, in fact. But it doesn’t matter, for in my lair, she will succumb to me and will worship me. It is why I was placed in the deepest level of them all, and why I am not allowed to use my powers anywhere other than here.”
“What do you mean?” I said as I saw Claire coming down the massive escalator.
“My eyes have magic over dragons,” he explained as he stared dreamily up at her. “They cannot resist me.”
“Seriously?”
“Absolutely.”
I looked at the exit and then I looked back at Claire.
“Okay,” I said, “this I gotta see.”
Chapter 33
Claire came up the rocks, hopping from one to the other with grace and agility.
She didn’t slip or teeter even once.
Bitch.
“Come hither, my lovely Claire,” said Basil with his arms out wide. “We shall finally be together.”
“Yeah,” she said without looking up, “I don’t think so, yellow eyes.”
“Huh?”
Claire reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses that looked identical to the ones Basil had been wearing when I’d first met him.
She slipped them on.
“Shit,” said Basil. “Where did you get those?”
“Your mom.”
I tried not to, but I laughed.
“Damn her,” Basil cursed, stomping his foot. “She’s never been supportive of my work.”
My laughter died off. “Wait, really? Your mom makes these?”
“She knows I can’t use my glare on people if they’re wearing those damn things,” Basil replied with a sneer, “so she sells them for ten thousand gold each.”
“Wow.”
That
put me in a very bad situation.
While I wasn’t worried about Basil, I knew damn well that Claire could best me in a fight. It’d be tough, but she’d likely win in the end. And with this level being quite cavernous, she could even go into full dragon mode if she wanted to. She wouldn’t, though, because I’d be able to get to the exit before her transformation completed.
“You may as well just give up,” Claire said with a smirk. “I have no problem fighting you, but we both know I’ll win.”
I took out Boomy and pointed it at her chest.
She laughed.
“You know it’s not going to get through my armor.”
I moved it to point at her head.
“Oh,” she said.
Just as I was about to fire, Basil yelled “No!” and pushed my arm up as I pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and headed off through the level as Boomy dislodged from my hand and clanked on the ground, coming precariously close to falling into the lava.
Claire was already on the move, diving for my mid-section.
Just as she tackled me, I threw a right jab at Basil, knocking him on his ass.
You don’t touch my fucking gun.
I rolled with the tackle and launched Claire off me in the process.
Had she been any other fighter, she would have landed on her back; instead, she twisted in midair and hit the ground feet-first.
Impressive.
Basil had gotten back to his feet and was rubbing his cheek. I gave him a “don’t screw with me” look and he backed away. Good thing, too, because I had no qualms about dumping his disturbing ass into the lava. Again, I didn’t know if that would have done anything to him, but seeing that he was getting as far away from me as possible, I had a feeling him falling into that pit wouldn’t be good for his flawless complexion.
Claire was on the move again. She stepped forward and threw a roundhouse kick toward my head. I backed off just enough and then went to take out her other leg. She hopped during rotation and cleared my sweep attempt.
As if in a deathly dance, we parried back and forth, kicking and punching like two kung-fu warriors on one of those movies from the eighties.
I was tempted to say, “My temple is the best,” but I refrained.
This was no time for jokes.
She jumped in close, giving me the chance to dislodge the shades she was wearing.
I caught a hard punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of me, but if I could get those glasses off, it’d be worth it.
They didn’t budge when I grabbed at them.
Claire chuckled as I doubled over and hit the ground.
“They’re magical, asshole,” she said as I fought to catch my breath.
She kicked me on the side of my head, laying me flat out and leaving me there groaning.
Then she stepped over me.
“Besides me, only a wizard or a mage can take these shades off my head.”
That’s when a familiar voice announced, “Perfect.”
Claire’s head jolted up just as a bright spell split her sunglasses in two. An ice ball followed that, knocking Claire back as I kicked out at her legs.
She fell down and slid away as the momentum of frozen spells crashed against her.
Finally, she came to a stop right next to Basil.
His grin was huge as he lovingly looked down into Claire’s eyes.
“Fuck,” she said an instant before her armor faded away.
She convulsed slightly, clearly fighting against those yellow swirling eyes.
Finally, she went still.
Then her demeanor changed radically.
“My love,” she said, reaching out and stroking his hair.
Basil did a fist-pump and whispered, “Yes.”
I got to my feet and glanced over at my crew.
“Thank you,” I said after verifying they were all okay. Then I waved at them. “Don’t look in his eyes. He’s a basilisk.”
They immediately glanced away.
“Are you okay?” Rachel asked. “I was…I mean, we were worried.”
“It’s been…interesting,” I answered. “I hope you guys didn’t have to go through what I just went through.”
“We just had to navigate through a bunch of cliffs and such,” Chuck stated. “Wasn’t that bad. Just took a while.”
“Good.”
Now wasn’t the time to get into my little adventure. Frankly, it was probably never going to be the time. I raised an eyebrow at myself. At least I finally had something I could talk about with Dr. Vernon, assuming we weren’t too busy boning. I scratched my head at that thought, wondering how she’d feel about hanging out with valkyries.
Rachel tilted her head at me, rolled her eyes, and scoffed.
“What?”
“You got laid,” she said. “You’re in the nine levels and you got laid.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “It’s not what you think.” Then I flinched, frowned, and lowered my hands. “And so what if I did?”
“Ugh,” was her only reply.
“Anyway,” I said, spinning back toward Basil, “you got what you wanted, right?”
He was nodding happily as Claire massaged his shoulders.
“Then how about helping us get topside without having to go through too much trouble? Is that possible?”
“Oh, sure,” Basil said. He looked to be incredibly happy at the moment. “I have an elevator over here that will take you straight to the top.”
“You’re kidding,” I replied as we followed him over to an opening in the wall. Sure enough, there were metal doors with an “up” button seated on a panel to the right of them. “You’re not kidding.”
“Nope.”
He then donned his sunglasses and looked up at me. Obviously this was unnecessary since I was clearly immune to his gaze, but the rest of my crew wasn’t, so I appreciated the sentiment.
I picked up Boomy and tucked him safely home.
“You have done me a great service, Ian,” he stated. “While I don’t appreciate that you punched me in the face, I understand why you did it and therefore forgive you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
The elevator doors opened and everyone piled in.
“Good luck to you all,” Basil said.
“Thanks, pal,” I replied, glancing over at Claire, recognizing she’d never be a thorn in my side again. While I wasn’t a fan of this trickery that the basilisk had used on her, I found solace in the fact that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer dragon. “Have a great honeymoon.”
Chapter 34
It was great to be back on top.
With nobody around to read my mind, it was okay to think things like that again.
The air was still sulfury, but at least I was no longer trapped in the nine levels. That would take years of “therapy” to unravel, if I was lucky.
“Nobody was hurt or anything, right?” I asked as I gave my crew the onceover.
They all shook their heads.
“Good.” I looked off toward the tower that housed our resident wizard and his fake girlfriend. “We have to get over there and stop that warped dragon chick from doing whatever it is she’s planning on doing to Warren.”
“That’s a long walk,” said Rachel, standing a good distance from me.
That was odd.
“And it’s not like there are any taxis around here,” noted Felicia.
“No,” agreed Turbo as he fluttered in front of everyone, “but there is a transit system, of sorts. It was installed during the age before the Badlands seceded from Netherworld Proper.”
“Where is it?”
“I’m not certain,” he said. “I’d have to get my bearings first.”
With that, he whipped out a small device and started tapping it, hitting it, and cursing at it. I wasn’t one who was known for being top of the class when it came to technology, but I got the feeling that the only action that was of any u
se was the tapping.
Turbo flew off in a couple of directions while yelling at the—as he called it—“infernal device!”
Finally, he came back and landed on Harvey’s shoulder. Harvey was still partially in werebear mode. Since he wasn’t fully bear, he looked kind of like what you might expect Bigfoot to look like.
“Okay, it’s that way.”
“Toward the tower?” I said.
“That’s where I’m pointin’, Chief.”
I sighed. “Right. How far?”
“About five miles.”
We all turned to start walking and then stopped.
“Sorry, did you say five miles?”
“Yep.”
“So you are telling us,” began Griff, “that we are to walk five miles in that direction, which clearly overshoots the tower by at least two miles, in order to acquire transportation so that we may come back to the tower after passing it on foot?”
Turbo adjusted his little tie. “Well, when you put it that way…” He trailed off.
“All right, fine,” I said after staring at Turbo for a couple of seconds, “get your guns ready. Mages, keep your magic to a minimum. We may need it. Harvey, if you could keep the partial bear thing going, that’d be a good idea, too. We need your strength, but we also need you to have your wits about you.”
He nodded and grunted in response.
Close enough.
I took point and started heading toward the tower. Distances were tricky on planes like this because everything was almost uniform. It was like looking at a mountain and thinking it’s only a mile or so away but it turns out that it’s more like twenty miles away.
Hopefully Turbo’s device was correct.
“Harvey,” I called back, signaling him forward, “how good is your nose for stuff like this?”
Grunt.
“Okay, I don’t speak werebear, so one grunt for yes, two for no. Got it?”
Grunt.
“Good. Is your nose good for smelling and tracking and all that?”
Grunt.
“As good as a werewolf?”
Grunt grunt.
I glanced back at Felicia, thinking it may be best if she changed over to her werewolf form. But I needed her to keep her Desert Eagle at the ready. She couldn’t do both, and I wasn’t sure how good Harvey was at using weapons.
Hopefully Harvey’s sense of smell would be good enough.
The Ian Dex Supernatural Thriller Series: Books 1 - 4 (Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department Box Sets) Page 43
