by SL Perrine
The demon, unaffected by the fire, continues his rush while melting skin falls to the ground in burning globs in his passing. Just before Nico gets steamrolled by teeth and claws, he throws his other hand up and freezes the demon in a block of ice. Performing a spinning back kick, his foot connects with the frozen demon and shatters it into a thousand pieces. The next man dies quickly in flames.
Unexpectedly struck from behind, Nico sails face first into the side of one of the vans. He grabs the handle of the van’s side door to keep from losing his feet, and it opens. Spinning to meet his attacker, he catches the man by the arm and tosses him into the interior of the van. Backpedaling quickly, he throws both hands up and sends uncontrolled fire roaring against the truck. The vehicle melts around the demon struggling to escape the molten metal until Nico ends his attack. As the metal cools, the demon’s body quits struggling, encased in cooling steel.
Massimo notices Nico’s change in tactics and sweeps up four men in his arms as he flashes forward.
“Butler, door!” Massimo yells.
Reaching speed, he releases the men, and they fly through the van door that Nico has just opened. Like a cup of worms writhing to get away from each other and out of their confinement, they struggle within the interior. Understanding washes over Nico, and he reduces the van to molten metal that quickly solidifies into a macabre metal sculpture.
“That’s what I call art,” Massimo says as he breezes past Nico and claps him on the shoulder before skewering another enemy.
Anthony has faced off against three men, and his magic is barely enough to keep them at bay. Gianna closes the distance to her lover and places her back to his while putting up an invisible shield to protect his six and her twelve. As Anthony struggles to put his attackers down, Gianna fights to maintain the wall against a crowd of Giovanni’s minions who are attempting to penetrate her defense to get to them.
“Jax, finish them off, the tide is rising here,” Gianna orders.
Anthony roars his frustration and falls back to an old standby of his. Quickly twirling the index finger of one hand, he calls up a dust devil that rapidly grows into a wild tornado. The funnel, directed by Anthony’s motions, sucks up enemy after enemy and tears them apart in the vortex. The whirlwind ejects the limbs at a great height to fall about the property like a grotesque hailstorm. Anthony commands the tornado about the property, picking up everything in its path and rocketing it skyward.
“Mind the manor, Jax,” Gianna cries in anger as a van falls near the front of her home and squashes the shrubbery there.
As Anthony dispatches the last of Giovanni’s men, he allows the whirlwind to fall apart. All the remaining detritus rains down across the property as Anthony collapses from overexertion. He’s followed by Gianna. Ravana arrives at their side. Nico and Massimo join them moments later.
“Gods, but it’s good to see my Yeti in action again,” Ravana smiles down at them.
“He isn’t yours, Red,” Gianna replies venomously while trying to catch her breath.
“Cool your lava, volcano girl. It’s just admiration for his skills. You’re no slouch either.”
“Is that a compliment?” Gianna asks.
“Take it how you like,” Ravana shrugs.
“It’s time,” Giovanni tells the Barathrum. “My followers are gone but have bought me the time I required.”
“Send me through the ether, master. I will return with that you have commanded.”
Giovanni nods to his acolytes within the chamber. They drag several homeless that he’s had abducted off the streets over the last few weeks into the pentagram. His minions force them to their knees. Acting decisively, Giovanni quickly slashes their throats. His followers jerk their heads back, and the vagrant’s severed carotid arteries spray blood into the air. Giovanni uses his magic to turn that blood into a combination of bloody mist and rain. The barathrum smiles sadistically and dashes into the bloody fog and disappears.
At the manor, a bloody rain begins to fall about the property. Gianna looks up as the ghoulish rain falls coating her and her friends in red.
“What the fuck is going on?” Gianna asks before spitting out some of the viscous fluid that has entered her mouth. “Is this blood?”
Ravana and Massimo lick their lips.
“Vintage homeless,” Massimo says.
“Ugh, I wouldn’t know,” Ravana adds.
“Nineteen seventy-five. Great year,” Massimo states. “I still say you don’t know what you’re missing, Red.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
As the bloody rain becomes a torrent, a figure begins to emerge in the downpour at the edge of the property approaching them at a full run.
“What the hell is that?” Nico asks disbelievingly.
Ravana looks in the direction Nico is watching.
“Get up and get into the manor. Now!” Ravana orders as she drags Gianna and Anthony to their feet.
Anthony, hardly able to walk, accepts assistance from Massimo and Nico as they race from the approaching danger while Ravana slings Gianna unceremoniously over her shoulder. Ravana passes them quickly and is waiting inside the door of the Manor as the men lurch up the steps. Once they’re through the door, Ravana slams the door closed and locks it without ever putting Gianna down.
“One of you witches needs to ward the entrance now,” Ravana instructs.
Nico, the least spent of the three, immediately wards the door as something powerful slams into the opposite side. It begins to pound relentlessly on the outside. As the five of them watch, the ward starts to break down with the door.
“That’s not going to hold it long,” Massimo observes.
“We need to get somewhere more secure.” Ravana states.
“What the hell is it?” Nico asks again.
“Matteo,” Gianna intones.
“What?” Anthony asks as they stagger out of the foyer.
“It was Matteo. I’d recognize that weasel anywhere.”
“Matteo’s dead.” Anthony cries.
“That’s not human,” Ravana states “At least not all of it.”
“Mila,” Gianna gasps as the door caves in behind them.
Ravana drops Gianna and turns to face the figure that stalks into the foyer and Massimo moves to stand beside her. The two pull their weapons. Matteo stops just inside the door and sneers beneath his sightless, milky white eyes.
“You’re right,” Gianna says in horror. “That’s not Matteo.”
Chapter 22
The Manor is quiet as the barathrum takes a few lurching steps forward. The creature that was Matteo lifts its head and tests the air with its nose like a wolf scenting game in the woods. Taking another step forward, it examines the air again with its nose as Gianna, Anthony, and Nico back slowly away.
Ravana separates her swords and shifts to a fighting stance. “Get to your sanctuary. We’ll keep it busy.”
“How do you know I have a sanctuary?” Gianna asked as Anthony took her hand and dragged her down the hall.”
“You’re a fucking witch, you all have sanctuaries,” Ravana answered without taking her eyes off the Barathrum.
As they passed through the great room on their way to the library, Nico closed and warded the door behind them. He could hear the vampires engage the creature on the other side of the door. Once inside the library, Nico warded those doors as well. He caught up with Gianna and Anthony as they made their way up the steps towards Gianna’s sanctuary. The noise behind them was growing as the fight intensified between the undead.
“Mila and Sarah,” Gianna reminded Anthony softly.
Anthony gave a tired nod. The fight on the lawn in front of the Manor left him drained, and he barely had enough strength to walk and help Gianna; let alone jump-start the process of drawing energy from the elements. Nico passed them on the steps.
“I’ll get them. You two get to the sanctuary.”
Anthony and Gianna made their way into the sanctuary after Gianna modifi
ed the wards to allow everyone to pass. Anthony eased Gianna onto the floor of her sanctuary and collapsed beside her as Nico entered carrying Mila in his arms with Sarah close behind. His breast heaved from the additional exertion.
Mila was rubbing her eyes. “Mamma, what’s going on?” she asked in a tired voice.
Gianna put the wards in place again as the sounds of battle grew closer downstairs. “We’re unsure, piccolo.”
They sit in Gianna’s sanctuary listening to the fight taking place somewhere in the house. When the noises started to get closer, Anthony jumped to his feet.
“No, don’t leave,” Gianna begged.
“They might need help, Gia. I can’t hide away in here, they came to help us. Not die for us.”
“Jax, please stay,” Mila yelled at the realization of what was going in.
Gianna watched her daughter’s eyes as she took in the state of them. Each of them had blood splattered all over their bodies. Anthony was black and blue on the side of his neck, and Nico sported cuts all over.
“Shhh, now Mila. Jax is going to stay right here. We’re protected in here.”
“Gianna!”
“No. They wouldn’t want you too, either. That thing is here for…” She couldn’t say it in front of her. She didn’t want to scare her daughter even more.
The noise reverberated through the house and Gianna had to admit they were heading up to the second floor. That thing would be at the door in no time. She doubted Ravana and Massimo were able to do much more than inflict minor injuries. She had a feeling as to why her husband sent it. This was her doing. If anything happened to Mila or to Anthony because she couldn’t hold her anger, because she took Giovanni’s lover, then she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. When the door began to vibrate, she knew it would have been too much to ask for it to just die. Whether she liked it or not, Anthony was going to open that door, or the creature that was Matteo would.
Ravana moved around Massimo, each of them taking a shot at their attacker in turns. They had a cat and mouse-like way about them that made them work well. Though up against something they haven’t even been able to research yet, Ravana didn’t know how effective their attacks would be.
“It’s times like this when I miss Delia.”
“You and me both, Red. Think she has any information she can spare in those books of hers?” He moved around her and blocked another blow from the creature wearing a man. That’s how Ravana thought of the thing. Like a lousy body suit.
"Oh, stop this squabbling and die already." Their attacker said as he pushed his way around the room.
Massimo grabbed one of the high-back dining chairs and broke it against the floor. "Let's see if this undead is anything like our undead." He twitched his head and lunged forward with a leg of the chair aimed at the barathrum's chest. Ravana moved with her sword, sliding the steel into the man's back as Massimo drove the splintered wood into the heart.
"You think to kill me. You must think better." He latched onto Massimo's wrist, which still held the wood and twisted backward. Bone snapped, and Massimo's eyes grew wide as a loud scream echoed through the room.
"Damn it," Ravana moved her sword overhead to strike at him again, only to receive a backhanded punch to the face, catapulting her across the room. Her head spun when she lifted it from the floor. Her vision blurred.
She'd come up against a wide variety of enemy's in the past, but none that could best her. That made her furious. She tried to lift herself and steady her vision as Massimo's screams continued.
"Hold on."
"No, luv. Get out of he-" He landed hard on the large wooden table. It shattered under the force of his body.
The barathrum glared at Ravana. She saw the meaning in his eyes as he moved toward Massimo's lifeless looking form. Before she could stop the room from spinning, he lifted Massimo's head and twisted his neck. Dropping him back to the floor amongst the debris.
Her body willed itself upright, and she ran to the foyer. He'd reached her at the stairs, pulling on her by her legs as she climbed up to the second floor. Her body fell, her chin smacking against the step. She listened intently to the heartbeats in the house, she could hear the breaths of the living. All were erratic at that moment, but one was more so. She knew the Yeti was soon to emerge, and she hoped he would be enough to get them all to safety.
Ravana pulled her knee to her chest and kicked backward. Her silver and iron coated heel plunged into the man's chest. He stumbled long enough for her to make it to the top landing. She sensed magic in one of the rooms and found herself surrounded by stuffed animals and fairytale books.
Matteo's footfalls sounded on the landing. He was mumbling incoherently to himself. She grabbed the stuffed animal with the protection spell cast on it and made her way back to the hall. She saw the man disappear into a stairwell to the third-floor sanctuary. Placing the stuffed toy on the landing, she moved her hand to her hip holster and remembered the blade she handed Gianna.
"Shit."
She looked around for something to use as a weapon. Besides her nails and teeth, she was empty-handed. Not having enough energy to move to get her blades forced her to go as she was. She blurred up the stairs and wrapped her arms around his waist. She moved as quickly as she could, dragging him back to the second floor.
"You, stupid creature, you cannot stop me." He elbowed her in the face, and she stumbled. The energy fading from her body. She needed blood...badly.
"Look who's calling the kettle black." She punched him in the throat, cracking his windpipe. He reached his hands out to grasp her around the neck, and she punched again with her right hand, stabbing his face with the blade of her ring.
"Ravana! No!" Anthony emerged from the stairwell as Ravana’s world went black.
Anthony froze in place as Matteo snapped Ravana's neck and her body landed at his feet with a thud. The construct grinned salaciously at Anthony as he grasped Ravana’s ankle and tossed her to the bottom of the stairwell. Gesturing to Anthony to come on, the barathrum backed to the bottom of the step. Anthony pulled the door to the sanctuary shut behind him and started down the stairs resolutely while noting that the wards were still in place. Those wards would be the last line of defense for those in the sanctuary should Anthony prove incapable of defeating the Barathrum.
Looking at Ravana as she lay immobile behind the creature mocking him, Anthony wondered if it was even possible. Ravana was the strongest, scariest monster he’d ever known, and he called her friend. This construct had been beyond her ability. He took another step down, and Matteo mirrored him while still beckoning him forward. By the time Anthony reached the bottom of the steps, the barathrum had backed itself into the center of the room. Neither of the vampires was dead. Well, technically, they were, but Anthony knew they’d be back in the fight before too long. He just had to keep this thing busy until they came around.
“What are you?” Anthony asked as he sidled around the room and began to draw energy from the air around him.
“I am the abyss,” the construct that looked like Matteo replied cryptically.
“That’s deep; read a lot of Nietzsche, do you?”
“Your attempts to delay me in my appointed task will avail you not. Your friends are dead. Their hearts as silent as stone,” Matteo states in that far away voice as he gestures at Ravana’s motionless body.
“My heart still beats. Hope lives.”
The barathrum chuckles, a sound something like gargling ice. “Only until my master carves it from your chest.”
“And your master would be one Giovanni Moretti?”
The barathrum cocks his head to the side for a moment before replying, “Yes. That is what he is known by on this plane of existence.”
“This plane of existence?”
Another chuckle of gargling ice.
“What does he want with Mila?” Anthony pushed.
“That information is not for you.”
“Damn, and we were getting along so well.”
/>
“The child will accompany us.”
“No. I think not,” Anthony states as he begins to tap into the power he stockpiled while talking.
Anthony throws his hands up and releases a ball of fire that speeds at the Barathrum. It envelops the creature and burns like hellfire until the clothes burn away from its body. The sightless eyes of the construct never so much as a flutter in pain and the flames burn out around it to leave a naked Matteo advancing on Anthony. The spell stole the last of Anthony’s strength. In a final desperate bid to protect those he’d come to love, Anthony launched himself physically at the construct.
The barathrum slapped Anthony aside as if swatting a fly. He smashed into Gianna’s dresser and crumpled like a doll. As he attempted struggling to his feet, the barathrum crossed the room and delivered another strike rendering him completely unconscious. The barathrum turned from Anthony’s inert form and crossed the room to the stairwell. As it ascended the stairs, the barathrum encountered the same force that balked it earlier; Gianna’s wards. While the resistance to its passing grew, so did the barathrum’s strength.
The barathrum, after a slight pause, began to push further up the stairs. The tension in the air started to grow until a sound like a rubber band snapping at high volume permeated the atmosphere; caused by the failing wards. Falling forward abruptly after leaning into the counter power of Gianna’s wards, the barathrum’s hand slapped against the glyph on the door of the sanctuary. The glyph exploded violently outward and propelled the barathrum down the stairs in a jumble of limbs. The inferno that came with the explosion would have reduced a human to ash; the barathrum felt nothing and immediately got to its feet again and ascended the stairs two at a time.
