Page 14

It was impossible, just impossible. And this was coming from someone who had once stared down a fully grown dragon. I’d thought that was intense, but after this, I was going to have to revise my personal scale.

Holy shit just got a brand-new definition.

Of course, that depended on me surviving this at all, which . . . yeah.

Fortunately, the senate didn’t buy cheap shit, and while I wasn’t the best on a bike of anybody I’d ever seen, I was motivated. I threw a couple of magical smoke bombs, skidded around in the resulting confusion, saw that giant head strike down all of an inch away from my right leg. And knifed the bastard in the eye.

It reared back, an unholy ululation of surprise and pain coming out of its mouth, so human-sounding that it had every hair left on my body saluting the insanity. And then it was coming for me as I rocketed ahead, with a sound like all the sandpaper in the world being scraped across all of the stone. The dragging shhhhSSSSHHHSSSHHHHHSSSSSHHHHHH noise made my ears want to join my skin wherever it had fucked off to.

And damn it, I tried. I was flying, straight back the way I’d come because that was the only exit I knew, and I was getting the fuck out of here! And so was someone else.

A second earlier, Lantern Boy had been on top of the rubble heap, hiding like he maybe had some sense. Now he was sitting behind me, holding onto my waist, and screaming in my ear. “Take a left!”

“What?”

“After you leave the chamber, go left!”

I went left.

“What are you doing?” I yelled, staring at him over my shoulder as we plunged into darkness, and thus getting a perfect view of the wall behind us blowing out.

“Helping you!”

We started down a long set of narrow stairs with almost no light at all, which wasn’t the best place for a conversation. “W-w-w-w-w-why?”

“I fail you. I fail him. I not fail again!”

Well, that’s optimistic, I thought, as the stairs disintegrated beneath us. That probably had something to do with the fact that an ancient demigod was smashing through them like they were tissue paper instead of solid stone. Or maybe it was just trying to fit its bulk down a passage completely unsuited for it.

Either way, it wasn’t fun.

That wasn’t the worse part, though.

A foul, lung shriveling stench flooded the air as my tires struggled to find purchase on the disintegrating floor, while chunks of stone tumbled down the stairs from behind me. It was so bad that I almost couldn’t breathe again, not because there wasn’t air, but because my body didn’t want it. I had to force myself to take in any oxygen at all, which was probably just as well.

Imminent asphyxiation gave me something else to concentrate on other than immanent death.

But that wasn’t the worst part, either.

“Left!” Lantern Boy screamed, and I hung a left, despite not being able to see a damned thing. But I could feel, and there was suddenly solid stone under my wheels again. I tore ahead, straight into a group of—

What was this shit?

I still couldn’t see too well, although the dead blackness of a moment ago was gone, but not for any good reason. We’d just plunged into the middle of what appeared to be a glowing crowd of mummies. They weren’t glowing much, but down here, any illumination seemed bright. And they were mummies, as in the ancient Egyptian, covered in bandages, barely shuffling along variety.

They weren’t attacking us, unless you counted getting in the way, so I guessed they weren’t part of Jonathan’s forces. It looked like whatever spell he was using had had some spillover, and whoever had been buried in the temple’s crypts had gotten caught in it. As to why the hell they were glowing a faint greenish white, I had no idea.

But it was pretty damned startling, and the ancient demigod apparently thought so, too. Or maybe he just got confused. Whatever the reason, one of the creatures was snatched up from beside us, and—

“Fuck!”

“The god, he has poison,” Lantern Boy informed me.

No shit. The mummy was no sooner pierced by those fangs than it began writhing and flailing, almost like it was alive and in pain again. Only no, I realized staring over my shoulder. The reason was the same one that caused a piece of paper caught in a fire to dance for a second, before curling up and dusting away.

Or in this case, to fall to pieces and then into nothing within seconds, like it had been hit with the world’s fastest acting acid.

Okay, I decided sickly.

Thatwas the worst thing.

And then I floored it.

“Left! Left!” Lantern Boy yelled, as we skidded through another doorway, but there was no left anymore. The giant snake head had just taken it out, along with everything on that side. We slid through the collapsing doorway, sparks scraping off the floor, then straightened up and went barreling ahead—

And found out where all the mummies had come from.

For the record, riding through a long, dark tunnel of a room, with a bunch of sarcophagi on either side, the lids of which are either off or rattling, is a fairly pants wetting experience. Especially when paired with mummies disintegrating left and right as spirts of acid hit them. And a goddamned Lantern Boy yelling “LEFT!” loud enough to rupture an eardrum.

I veered left, which was heart attack inducing itself as I couldn’t see squat, and we were going about sixty miles an hour, and there was no actual corridor there. Or a room or even another crypt. Any of which would have been preferable to—

“Stairs!” And worse, they were going up.

We crashed into them, almost flipped, and did stand on end for a second before I could sort us out. Mummy light is not good light, but by this time, I was mostly going on feel anyway. That and sheer terror.

“Sorry!” Lantern Boy yelled from behind me as we started up.

He didn’t sound sorry. He sounded hyper, as if whatever passed for an adrenaline system in vamps had hit overload, enough to short out his good sense, fully extend his fangs, and probably tent the front of his robes if I could see them, which thankfully I could not. But it was indisputable that I had a hopped-up teenager determined to prove himself to his possibly dead boss, and for some reason, I was taking orders from him.

I wasn’t sure which of us was crazier.

But I didn’t know the layout down here, so I just kept going. When a spurt of pure acid hit the wall beside me, melting ancient stones into goo, I kept going. When the ceiling started to collapse, sending huge rocks tumbling down at us, some bigger than we were, I swerved and kept going. When Lantern Boy shoved a hand in my jacket, and sent every charm I had left tumbling down what remained of the stairs, including one that transformed into a cute little Citroen that I’d never even had a chance to drive, I Kept. Fucking. Going.

I heard the car crumple between the too-narrow walls behind us when it expanded to its full size, and wedge itself there like a barricade. One that lasted about a second when hit by twenty tons of godly fury. I heard the brain altering sound of an entire car getting crushed like a soda can behind us as we burst out into a suspiciously well-lit tunnel. And then—

“Left!”

“You asshole!” I yelled, because sure enough, the damned kid had brought us right back where we’d started.

Well, almost. We were on the other side of the great hall now, where a Louis-Cesare shaped hole was to be seen on our right, in the midst of a field of golden spikes. There were crumbled pillars and piles of rock everywhere, shambling zombies in the shadows, and vampires, beaten and bloody, but back on their feet, why I didn’t know.

And then I did, along with why Lantern Boy had suddenly gotten so perky.

The boss was back.

When I’d first seen Hassani at our consul’s court, I’d thought him fairly menacing, and not just because of his looks. He’d had an air about him, not of danger exactly, but of something. He had been completely believable as a thousand-year-old assassin and the head of a group of equally badass characters.

Which was why I’d been surprised when Louis-Cesare and I arrived in Egypt and met a mostly gracious, scholarly type with ink stained fingers and rosy cheeks above his carefully tended beard. He’d reminded me of a cross between a younger version of Santa Claus and a medieval monk. It had been . . . disappointing.

I wasn’t disappointed now.

Now he looked more like Gandalf, only not the kindly, firework-wielding version. But Gandalf the White, come back from the brink of death to kick butt and take names, and he was all done taking names. But not of thundering one from the top of the stairs, his arms raised like Moses, if Moses had wielded a sword in either hand.

“Sokkwi you were, and Sokkwi you are, and ever shall be, no matter how many times you return. But you will not return again, Little Fool. Today will see your end.”

He didn’t even raise his voice, not that he needed to with those acoustics. And yet I was shivering. And skidding around, throwing an absolute wave of sparks into the air from a fender sliding across rock, which the tide of vamps rushing at me didn’t even flinch away from.

I guess fear was relative, and nothing looked intimidating next to what was chasing me.

So, I didn’t understand why, instead of running to back up the boss, they grabbed me and started dragging me back. “That thing will kill him,” I said, fighting. “Don’t you get it? It will kill him!”

“No, it won’t,” Louis-Cesare said, pulling me back, pulling me away. Leaving the tiny looking man in the burnt and filthy robes, standing all alone at the top of the massive staircase.

But not for long.

The wall I’d just driven through exploded, sending huge stones tumbling over the floor, each as big as a small house. Fortunately, we’d retreated out of the way, into the shadow of a lion headed goddess whose name I couldn’t remember. Right now, I could barely remember my own.

Because the giant shadow of the great beast had just fallen over the stairs, blocking out the light, leaving Hassani all alone in the darkness.

“We have to help him,” I whispered.

But Zakarriyyah was shaking his head. “He has all the help he needs,” he said softly.

I had no idea what he meant. There was nobody else here. And, worse, the trip through the crypts hadn’t put a mark on the creature. That armor-like hide was a little dustier, but if it had picked up so much as a scratch, I didn’t see it.

How did you fight something like that? How did you even start? If massive boulders hadn’t hurt it, I doubted any weapon we had was going to do any better. Not that I had any left in the first place—

And then the snake started talking, and I forgot to care. I forgot everything except the words echoing and echoing—inside my mind.

It was like a thousand voices speaking at once, each in a different language. But the English words were louder, or maybe they were just louder to me. So loud they hurt, like nails scraping the inside of my brain.

Until Louis-Cesare’s arms tightened, and the screaming became softer. More like a shout in the ear instead of a megaphone. Not pleasant, but bearable.

“I won’t have to come again, young one. This time, I am not leaving. This time I will carve a bloody path of vengeance through those who have wronged me. Their corpses shall litter the Earth, as will those of any who—ah!”

The voice broke off abruptly, I wasn’t sure why. And then I heard it, another voice behind the first, too quiet to make out. But whispering, whispering.

“Save your breath, mage!” the monster hissed. “You do not control me. Did you think you could use a god as your puppet?”

Jonathan, Louis-Cesare mouthed.

“I will take your power,” the thing that had been Sokkwi said, “and once I am back in the sun, I will add to it such a mighty sum that all the Earth shall tremble!” The huge head was suddenly back in Hassani’s face. “But you first.”

I started fighting again, knowing what was coming even if the others didn’t. I’d just seen it, and it had been memorable. And, sure enough, the burst of caustic venom hit Hassani dead center barely a second later . . .

And kept on going.

“What the—” I stared. I’d seen that shit dissolve solid rock! How was he just standing there?

“One of the Teacher’s master powers,” Zakarriyyah murmured. “To project an image somewhere he is not.”

“So, where is he?” I asked, because I only saw one of him, standing calmly in the middle of a torrent of poison that couldn’t hurt him, because he wasn’t really there. But he was somewhere, and I didn’t think playing hide and seek with a demigod was going to work for long.

And neither did the demigod.

“I don’t have to look for you,” the voice in my head echoed again. “You will come to me. The only question is, how many of your people do I have to kill first?”

“Scatter,” Zakarriyyah said—unnecessarily. We were already doing it, with me and Louis-Cesare heading for my bike until it was crushed under the massive body slithering this way. It loomed up in my vision, a solid wall of gleaming scales, blackness smothering the light and swallowing the earth—

And swallowing us, or flat out running us over, crushing our bones into powder. Except that I’d been wrong earlier. Louis-Cesare hadn’t used the Veil, his own personal master power, after all. It took a huge amount of energy and couldn’t be deployed again for hours.

So, if he had, I wouldn’t be looking at the world through a haze of white, like a London fog had just rolled in.

Or staring in disbelief as a river of scales slammed into me, yet didn’t hurt.

The creature passed right on through us and out the other side, leaving me staring around wildly, confused, disoriented, and seriously skeeved out.

“All right?” Louis-Cesare asked.

I nodded breathlessly. That was a lie, but the truth wouldn’t help us right now. Not when I could still see the massive creature stopped in the middle of the room, not ten yards away.

But it couldn’t see me.

Like Hassani, I simply wasn’t there anymore.

Louis-Cesare was able to slip out of phase with the world for a short time, transitioning into some kind of non-space I didn’t fully understand. I doubted he did, either, since he couldn’t stay there for long. A minute, maybe two—probably the former since he’d dragged me along with him—and that was it.

We didn’t have much time.

“Come on!” I said, pulling on him, but he wasn’t budging. Unless you counted going the other way—toward the snake. “What are you doing?”

“You bought us time; we used it,” he told me. “But we have to finish this—”

“How?” I demanded, holding onto him.

“—and the chance will pass by if you don’t trust me.”

“Like you trusted me?”

He at least had the grace to blush. “Dory—”

“Later,” I said, and released him. He nodded, although he did not appear to be looking forward to later. Personally, I’d just be grateful if we had one.

Especially when he started climbing the goddamned snake.

I married a crazy man, I thought, hugging myself to keep from going up there after him. Louis-Cesare could survive being flung against a stone wall. I doubted that I could, especially now.

But damn it, climb faster.

The great beast wasn’t making it easy. The skin was slick, and the creature wasn’t staying put to hunt for us, because we weren’t the target. Hassani was. And to flush him out, any of his people would do.

The huge body suddenly moved like quicksilver, spotting some of the fleeing vamps and crossing the room after them in seconds. But they weren’t staying still, either, and had jury rigged a few surprises in the short time they’d had. Including working together to topple one of the already cracked pillars, sending it crashing down onto the beast and causing huge, broken pieces to scatter everywhere.

One passed through me as I ran after them, but didn’t kill me because of the Veil. But we had seconds left there at best, and Louis-Cesare wasn’t even half way up the great body. I could see him through the dust and debris, looking impossibly small next to those acres of scales.

Hurry up, I thought savagely. Whatever you’re going to do, do it now! Before we’re both—

Back.

A flying bit of rock cut a line across my cheek, a burning warning as I stumbled back into real space. I looked up, and sure enough, Louis-Cesare was visible, too, clinging to the great hide as the creature lunged after the fleeing vamps. Who were suddenly fleeing the other way.

I stared in disbelief at those crazy bastards, who swarmed the huge body, not one or two of them, but all of them, all at once. It was futile, like a bunch of ants charging a bull elephant. But for a brief moment, it worked, causing Sokkwi to pause in confusion.

And a moment was enough.

A blade flashed, high on the scaly hide; the great head reared back as if in pain, and a stream of poison spewed wildly everywhere. Several of Hassani’s people cried out and then were silenced, their bodies dusting away to ashes when the droplets touched them. And something that looked a lot like a long, jagged fang arced through the air—

And was caught, but not by me.

Not by Hassani, either, although he was there, in the shadows of the great stairs as another army joined the fray. One composed of emaciated brown bodies that reflected the torchlight like lacquer as they surged down the steps, including the one in front, whose shriveled, date-like eyes I’d seen staring at a door for centuries, waiting—

For this.

Louis-Cesare jumped free, unable to use the weapon he’d provided them without dusting to powder. But the poison didn’t seem to have the same effect on the prisoners. Their skin burned with it, but they didn’t disintegrate, I didn’t know why.

“They’re his Children,” Zakarriyyah said, coming up beside me. “It gives them limited immunity.”

Limited being the word, I thought, watching great wounds open up in that strange skin, but the prisoners didn’t seem to care. They waded into the fray, the fang held aloft in the leader’s hand, who used it like a dagger to do what steel never could, and tear open the belly of the beast. The prisoners immediately swarmed into the flood of viscera, tearing, clawing, biting.

And laughing.

Terrible, yet joyous laughter rang around the room and echoed off the stones, sending hard chills climbing up and down my body, while the monster writhed and twisted, trying to throw off his tormentors. Only they weren’t there anymore. They were inside, ripping their former master apart from within, eating him alive even as they were themselves consumed.

Hassani staggered over, pale as a ghost, which he nearly was. The rich blood of a consul had gone to feed the prisoners for this, their final battle. But it seemed almost futile, with what we knew.

“He’ll just come back,” I said hoarsely.

“Let us test that theory.” Hassani looked at Louis-Cesare, who had come up on Zakarriyyah’s other side. “If you would be so kind?”

Louis-Cesare handed over his rapier, with the col de mort attached, which Hassani threw to the leader of the prisoners. He’d been waiting alongside the great wound he had made, waiting while his skin burned and his people died, waiting, for what I didn’t know. Until one of them brought it forth: a huge, still beating heart.

“Your consul didn’t understand the need, when she fought him,” Hassani said, his usually rich voice a soft rasp. “He was but a pile of bones. What could bones do?”

A lot, I thought dizzily, if they happened to belong to a demigod.

“My friend, the honor is yours,” Hassani said to the leader.

I didn’t know if it would be enough; Hassani had said that Sokkwi did not have the same weaknesses as other vamps. But the next moment, the air was suffused with ashes, a huge swirling storm of them, coating our eyes, our ears, our tongues, everything. And when we finally emerged from the choking cloud, we stared around in wonder.

The great body had disappeared.

The gods, it seemed, weren’t so immortal, after all.