Queen Of Blood Part 20

Ellen's eyes cleared for a moment and focused on the distraught face of her sister. Her lips moved and a soft sound emerged: "Muh ...muh--"

"Shush. It's okay. Don't try to talk." Marcy sniffled and hot tears spilled down her cheeks. "I'm gonna take care of you, okay? Just like I've always done, you'll see."

But Ellen wasn't listening. She grabbed the front of Marcy's s.h.i.+rt, seized it with surprising strength, and struggled to lift her head off the floor. She opened her mouth one last time and this is what she said:"Muh... muh...Marcy."

Then she was dead. Again.

Marcy felt a moment of total despair. Her mind replayed Ellen's last moments, that heroic struggle to speak her sister's name for the first and only time.

The despair evaporated.

Marcy stood and did a quick appraisal of the situation in the hallway. Many of the Black Brigade men had fallen, were either dead or dying on the hallway floor. Some went racing past her, heading for the staircase and the third floor beyond. A handful remained behind, valiantly defending their position against all hope of success. The smoke at the far end of the hallway was beginning to dissipate. She could make out the forms of the invaders as they drew steadily closer. She saw red bursts from the muzzles of their weapons. A stray round from one of those guns had ended the life of her reborn sister.

Marcy acted then on instinct, without even considering the implications of what she was doing. She raised the Glock and dashed into the fray, rus.h.i.+ng past the Black Brigade men hunkered down in doorways. She squeezed the Glock's trigger over and over and some of the bullets found soft flesh. She saw one round penetrate the throat of one of the camo-clad men. The man dropped his weapon and clamped his hands over the wound. Blood pulsed over his fingers as he sank to his knees. Another bullet punched through the faceplate of another man's gas mask, sending him lurching into the arms of a startled comrade. She kept firing and two more men fell. The enemy returned fire, of course, but they kept missing, seemed somehow unnerved by the sight of the young girl coming straight at them. Marcy felt invincible. It was just like those months on the road with Dream. She was killing at will and nothing could stop her.

Then a bullet caught her in the thigh and spun her to the floor. The pain was immense and startling. Not invincible after all, then. The h.e.l.l with it. This was the end for her. But she would not go down easy. She rolled to her side, lifted the Glock, and fired again.

Another man fell.

And another.

Then the Glock clicked empty and a moment later a burst of automatic fire tore apart her chest. The Glock slid from her suddenly numb hand and she rolled onto her back. She was still alive, but just barely, could feel the strength leaving her body. A fleeting thought crossed her mind in those last moments, the possibility that Dream might try to conjure her back.

She hoped not.

Then a man in camos was standing above her. He peeled off his gas mask and shook his head. The hallway was almost quiet now. The remaining Black Brigade fighters on this floor had been vanquished. The camo-clad man's tone was incredulous as he said, "Any of y'all see that s.h.i.+t? That b.i.t.c.h was crazy."

A small woman in black appeared next to him. She unsheathed a long, gleaming sword and said, "She is a warrior and deserves a warrior's death."

Marcy antic.i.p.ated the arc of the sword and closed her eyes as it flashed through the air. It hurt for only a fraction of a second as the blade chopped through her neck.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

The fiercest fighting was happening well ahead of their position. Chad was glad of that. But they were by no means out of harm's way. Stray rounds whizzed by intermittently. Most of them thunked harmlessly into the walls, but one found the head of a man just behind and to the left of where Chad was standing. Chad felt a tightness in his chest and dropped to the floor, unable to breathe for a moment.

Then Allyson was kneeling over him, gas mask pushed atop her head, panic etched into her strained features. "Chad! Can you hear me? Are you okay? Are you hit?"

Chad sucked in a deep breath and sat up. "I'm fine. I--"

The smoke was thickest at floor level. But now some of it rolled away and he saw a black-clad man p.r.o.ne on the floor. The man had been shot multiple times, including one round that had pa.s.sed through his cheek. At a glance, anyone would a.s.sume the wound to the face had been a mortal one. It was ugly and spectacularly gory. But a closer look revealed the truth. The round had pa.s.sed through one cheek and out the other, leaving behind a mangled face and a mouthful of shattered teeth. But he was alive. And clutched in his right hand was a 9mm pistol. He raised it and aimed it at the back of Allyson's head.

Chad snapped out of his stupor and shoved Allyson aside a moment before the 9mm discharged. The bullet smashed into the wall. Chad leaped to his feet and kicked the gun out of the man's hand. It went skittering down the hallway, disappearing beneath the curling tendrils of smoke. Chad switched the M-16 to semiauto, jammed the barrel against the man's forehead, and squeezed the trigger. The bullet punched a hole through his forehead and blood fanned out around the base of his skull.

Allyson was on her feet again. She looked at the dead man. Then she looked at Chad and smiled. "You saved my life."

"I owed you."

A figure emerged from a doorway to his right and Chad lifted his weapon again. Then he saw who it was and heaved a sigh. "f.u.c.k, man, you scared the s.h.i.+t out of me."

Jim's weapon was slung over his shoulder. He wasn't wearing a gas mask and his eyes were bloodshot and watering from the smoke. Eyes that projected a deep sadness. "All this madness, there's got to be an end to it." The continuing sounds of battle failed to mask the haunted tone. He sounded like a man contemplating the end of the world, like a president on the brink of launching nuclear warheads. He looked Chad in the eye and said, "It ends here. I'll see to it."

And with that he turned from them and continued down the hallway.

Chad glanced at Allyson. "The h.e.l.l's that supposed to mean?"

She pushed her gas mask down and shrugged. "No idea. Let's keep moving."

And move they did, following the advance guard to the end of the hallway, then up the stairs to the third floor. They continued to encounter resistance as they progressed through the house, but it thinned out as they gained each floor and they stopped using the stun grenades to pave the way. It just wasn't necessary and only served to slow them down. Chad followed Allyson's lead and removed his gas mask. He remained vigilant, but he had a feeling his time as an active partic.i.p.ant in the battle was at an end.

Chad didn't fire a single shot as they moved more quickly through the fourth and fifth floors. The gunfire ahead of them was sporadic, limited to occasional pops. Chad felt almost giddy for a time, buoyed by the apparent quick success of the invasion. Then something troubling occurred to him, the notion that success had come too fast and too easily. Yes, the enemy was fighting back, had even killed a number of the Camp Whiskey men, but the defending force was less formidable by far than Chad had antic.i.p.ated. There didn't seem to be that many of them. Thinking about it, he began to feel a touch of paranoia. It was almost as if the enemy was holding something back, only offering a token resistance. Chad looked at Allyson and saw the intent look on her face. He wondered if any of this had occurred to her. Probably not. She was too focused on the task at hand.

He cleared his throat and said, "Hey, there's something--"

The thought went unfinished as something peculiar caught his eye. There was a bullet hole just below one of the wall sconces. It appeared to be...healing itself. The hole was filling in, the fabric of reality--or appearance of reality--rea.s.sembling itself. There was some sort of sorcery at work. If he survived to make a return journey back through this house, he thought it likely he would eventually arrive at the foyer to find it perfectly restored. Upon reflection, this shouldn't have surprised him. This place was just like the Master's house in many ways. Bigger by far on the inside than out, for one thing. Populated by a coterie of wayward psycho children turned professional s.a.d.i.s.ts, for another. And sustained by a brand of magic so powerful the mere contemplation of it was staggering. Surely anyone capable of wielding that kind of power was also capable of swatting aside the Camp Whiskey invaders like so many gnats.

Allyson shot him a puzzled, impatient look. "What?" Her gaze remained on the hallway ahead, occasionally drifting to the left or right as they pa.s.sed open doorways. "Keep your head out of the clouds, Chad. Stay focused."

The formerly ragged bullet hole had dwindled to a small black speck on the wall. In another moment even that was gone. "Yeah. Right." Chad shook his head and poked the barrel of his weapon into the open doorway on his right. He peeked around the doorjamb and saw a s.h.i.+vering, terrified Apprentice huddled beneath a desk on the far wall. He moved past the doorway and said, "It's not important."

She shot him another puzzled look. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, with little blonde tufts hanging loose at her temples. Her face was grimy with sweat and soot. But it was funny. He felt a sudden and powerful urge to kiss her. She was so amazingly beautiful. He didn't think he'd ever fully appreciated just how beautiful until this very moment. Somehow she even managed to make combat look s.e.xy.

She arched an eyebrow. "Are you okay? Would you get that goofy grin off your face. We're fighting for our lives here."

Chad forced the smile away and nodded. "Right. Sorry."

They ascended another set of stairs to yet another floor. Chad had lost track of how many floors they'd climbed, but he knew it was a ridiculously high number for a house that looked like a one-story wreck from the outside. But there was something different about this floor. It was wider and better-lit. The light fixtures and wainscoting were more ornate. And at the end of the long hallway stood a ma.s.sive set of double doors that seemed to reach for the sky. Chad noticed now that the ceiling curved upward, rising dramatically toward the end of the hallway.

One of the men ahead of them said, "G.o.dd.a.m.n. I hope we ain't goin' in there."

The man to his immediate left snickered. "No s.h.i.+t. Look at them f.u.c.kin' monster doors. Giants must live in there."

The other man shuddered visibly and said, "f.u.c.k. Don't say that. This s.h.i.+t's been weird enough already."

Bai was at the head of the decimated column of fighters. She arrived at the double doors and turned her back to them, waited with arms crossed beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s for what remained of the Camp Whiskey force to a.s.semble before her. Only now, clear of the smoke and exposed in this wide hallway, did Chad realize just how little was left of this force. Their numbers had been reduced by more than half.

Bai spoke. "Victory is our s."

Then she unsheathed her sword and waded into the loose circle of surviving Camp Whiskey fighters. She was a black, untrackable blur moving side to side across the hallway, the long blade a flas.h.i.+ng silver streak of light. The soldiers fell in rapid succession beneath her blade. Most were too startled to put up a fight. One or two tried clumsily to resist, but died in the attempt. It was over almost as soon as it had begun.

When Bai returned her sword to its sheath, the only people she'd left alive were Chad, Allyson, and Jim.

Chad gaped at her. "Why the h.e.l.l did you do that?"

Bai's expression was serene. The anger and terror in his tone failed to move her. A little smile darkened the corners of her mouth. "They were no longer necessary."

Chad's heart was slamming in his chest. "Yeah? And what about us? Why are we alive?"

Her smile deepened a little. "Because I am of the Order. I am merciless and I do not care about you. But I am true to my word. Survive this and you and your woman will be free."

Chad's chin jerked in Jim's direction."And what about my friend?"

"He has also cut a deal with the Order."

Chad's expression turned quizzical as he moved closer to Jim. "What's she talking about?"

Jim sighed. "You wouldn't understand. You don't need to understand." He turned away from Chad and looked at Bai. "Let's end this."

Bai nodded and moved to one of the huge doors.

She took the k.n.o.b in one of her small hands, turned it, and pulled the door open. A brilliant white light made their eyes water.

Then Chad glimpsed what was waiting for them inside and gasped.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.

Down in the depths of a fevered sleep, Giselle's body shook as she dreamed of blood. Blood everywhere. Spouting from freshly opened wounds. Jetting from the stumps of severed limbs like s.e.m.e.n e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed from a throbbing c.o.c.k. A great, crimson ocean drained from the bodies of hundreds of victims, a deep red tide filling the hallways of a very old mansion that only vaguely resembled the one she'd ruled over so mercilessly for a handful of months. Then a flashback, a jump backward in time, and the blood she sees is weeping from the wounds in her little brother's body. Wounds she inflicted at the Master's behest in order to save herself. He'd rewarded her for that blood betrayal, using his magic to arrest the aging process in her body, freezing her in an image of perfect late adolescent beauty. She had lived for more than fifty years, but she would never look any older than seventeen or eighteen. But the psychic price for this dubious gift was high indeed. The look of agony on her dying brother's face was always lurking at the back of her mind, perpetually threatening to rise to the surface with its screaming accusations.

And so of course he returned to haunt and taunt her now.

Giselle awoke gasping, her psyche still reeling from the long-suppresed images of her decades-dead brother. Wakefulness failed to banish the memories. Her body shook and her heart raced like an athlete's at the end of a series of sprints, a manic thump-thump-thump that made the blood sing in her ears. Or was that just the memory of her brother's wailing pleas for mercy? Hot tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cold cheeks. She remembered it all now. How he'd called out for his mommy and daddy over and over, even though they were already dead. Even though he'd watched them die. As if some part of him really believed their mutilated bodies could reanimate and come to his rescue. Because that's what mommies and daddies did. They came to your rescue. They kept the boogeyman away and held you and rocked you when you were feeling bad. He was just a little kid and he'd been unable to accept that there was no one to play that role for him anymore. Not even his beloved older sister, who had turned against him so cravenly, just to save her own hide.

Giselle's scream echoed in the dark chamber.

She shook her head hard, her sweat-soaked, stringy hair flailing in the darkness. She cried and jibbered like a madwoman locked in the padded room of some asylum.

NO!NO!NO!.

NO!NO!NO!NOOOOOooooooo...

But the images refused to recede. It was as if, having thought of them, having allowed them room to breathe in the haunted cavern of her mind, she couldn't not dwell on the awful memories.

She let out another keening cry of grief, raised her hands to her face--and felt the stumps prod her cheeks.

A moment of perfect stillness elapsed. In this moment, she held her breath, not daring to breathe. Not daring to acknowledge existence itself. Her mind was blank. Then she released that breath and gently touched the stumps to her cheeks again.. There was a faint phantom limb sensation, but it diminished as her mind accepted the simple physical evidence of her mutilated flesh.

Her hands were gone again. She experienced a moment of desperate, yawning disorientation, as if she were standing at the edge of a great abyss. One more step and she would plummet into forever darkness. She struggled to comprehend what had happened. There was no pain. No throbbing ache of infection. These were not fresh wounds. Rather, these were wounds that had healed over time. Months, maybe. Her "restoration" had been a kind of illusion all along, an elaborate trick played on her by the Master while he masqueraded as Azaroth and awaited her inevitable downfall. She'd even half-suspected it near the end of her reign here.

She was as she'd once been.

Completely.

Her body was real again. Not whole, but real. Unenhanced by magic. In fact, she felt not the faintest trace of magical energy lurking anywhere within her. Whatever abilities she'd possessed were gone, beyond any hope of recapture. The damping energy Dream had wrapped her in was gone, too, no longer needed.

She was as she'd once been.

Completely.

With a broken body.

And a fully functioning conscience.

This realization at last banished the memories of her brother, but there was no relief in this. Because now her mind was flooded with a ceaseless series of images of the horrible things she'd done over the last few months. A nonstop film loop of atrocity with her in the starring role. And Ursula in a second-billed role, always by her side, inflicting pain and death because they enjoyed it, because they reveled in the screams and cries of their victims. Had she really thought she loved Ursula? Because she felt no connection to that emotion now. It, too, had been an illusion.

Giselle pressed the backs of her forearms to her face and cried some more, her chest heaving with the force of emotions artifically held in check for too long.

She thought of Eddie, her blood sacrifice to "Azaroth."

Sweet, trusting Eddie.

And that look of confused betrayal on his face in his last moments.

The crying only began to dry up as she felt the subtle vibrations in her bones. She sat very still for a moment and waited. And felt the vibrations again. Then she drew in a series of deep breaths and felt herself grow calm.

She then situated herself in a corner of the swinging cage and awaited the arrival of the ones who had come for her. She thought about them and wondered what they would do with her. She supposed they would torture her. And then kill her, of course. There would be much pain. But contemplating this failed to disturb the new, sudden sense of peace that had settled over her. She supposed she deserved whatever they had planned for her. She thought about the dragon tattoo. If she could see herself in a mirror, would she still see the dragon? She thought not.

She was as she'd once been.

Completely.

She closed her eyes in the darkness and thought of a time when she'd done heroic things. Memories that were bittersweet now, but no less true than the memories of horror. When the tears came again, they were the soft, noiseless tears of a black-clad mourner at the grave site of a long-estranged former lover or friend.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.

The room was enormous, a large, open s.p.a.ce big enough to encompa.s.s some of the smaller rural homes Allyson had seen on the way to this place. A portion of it functioned as a library and den. At the far end was a living s.p.a.ce, with a canopied four-poster bed, wardrobe, and vanity.