Vampire Huntress - The Damned Part 39

"You're a.s.s was lucky," Damali shouted, to make J.L. know not to attack her. "The only thing that probably kept you from being gored was the bracelet. Hold your fire. It dropped you because the UV burned it."

Blue-and-yellow rapid-artillery ejections looked like fireworks from the distance. She left J.L. and circled, trying to find a safe place to come in for a landing without taking a sh.e.l.l. Then something slammed into her midair, a slash sounded behind her, and she ducked a razor-edged tail, but it got her wing.

Tumbling, she landed with a hard thud, rolled, and held her left shoulder. The gash was two inches deep and blood was everywhere. But she had to get back into the fight. It wasn't time to bleed or die. Damali scrambled over the ridge to where the unseen beast had fled trailing sulfur, knowing it was headed in Carlos's direction.Carlos ran as fast as he could to draw it away from the others. He somersaulted behind a rock formation, but a bolt of black energy smashed it. The blade in his hand had snapped like a twig when he'd swung it with all his might, the beast ducked, and it made contact with stone. Carlos flung the useless handle to the ground. Two huge yellow eyes appeared in a black scaly face and leaned down from its ten-foot advantage, fangs glistening, one wing smoking, but not slowed in the least.

"I believe you were looking for me," he hissed.

Carlos's back was to air, his heels perilously crumbling pebbles. Even with the thunderous distortion, he'd know Dante's voice anywhere.

Claws extended as the beast lunged forward in an open-fisted reach toward Carlos's chest. His golden energy s.h.i.+eld rose, blocking the heart-s.n.a.t.c.h, but he fell backward over the ledge.

He was tumbling so fast that all the air in his lungs instantly exited his body. Then something s.n.a.t.c.hed him and stopped his collision with the ground. His stomach lurched and felt like it was in his esophagus; the change in direction was so abrupt. A long, red tongue splattered with black ooze licked the side of his face and covered his hair in slime. Grayish-green hooked claws held him to a cold, scaly torso with b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The thing that carried him was so large that he couldn't see its face. Carlos glimpsed down at the several-thousand-foot drop, then glimpsed up at the ent.i.ty that clutched him. Options were limited, but it was not about going with her toward the destination of a cliff-side lair.

Carlos opened his hand. A new sword was in it. Death before dishonor. Unable to get a good angle to penetrate the creature's body, he swiped at one of the huge, leathery wings that beat the air.

The creature screeched, but didn't let go. A razor tail slashed at his blade, fending off another stab. The female beast that held him was listing to one side, injured in the joint, not in the webbed leather like the other beast had been. Her hulking body billowed foul yellow smoke, her narrowed gaze sought a landing, when something mounted her back. Carlos was flung against the dirt, his sword lost in the hard fall, and he backed away from the edge of a yawning drop, as two beasts collided midair, one black, one gray, and tumbled in a downward death-struggle.

"Take cover," the gray beast screeched toward Carlos, her eyes glowing black. "You cannot be destroyed. Not now during your apex!"

He didn't wait to watch the outcome, but rejoined the team, running a hundred yards toward the clearing where blue-white outlined bodies could be seen in the darkness.

J.L. was back on his feet. Rider and Shabazz had locked on targets and released cold-seeking missiles. Big Mike had released a shoulder cannon sh.e.l.l that took out a section of mountain over the next ridge.

The team ducked, scattered, and took cover in five directions as the smoking gray beast was suddenly hurled over the edge of the ridge, slid through the tent and equipment, and landed two hundred yards away against the mountainside. Big Mike was trapped as she rose, dashed forward, and snapped at him. But Mike's silver-spiked boot caught the beast's jaw, hurling her back and splattering blackish-green slime at his feet. She reached out with a deadly swipe; Mike ducked and rolled away from the tail that stabbed at him. Inez jumped up, not taking cover, squeezing rounds from an Uzi and screaming Mike's name. Rider opened fire with Inez and Shabazz to give his man cover, allowing Mike to scramble behind another huge rock.

"Lilith, you b.i.t.c.h!" A deep voice rumbled in the distance. "You will never supercede me to make him your heir apparent! Not in his apex, not ever!" Within seconds, the black beast flew over the cliff edge toward the injured one, his black tail swis.h.i.+ng in fury as he gained momentum. The gray one tried to lift off, screeching and hissing, and sending a weak arc of energy toward the larger creature hurling toward her; then suddenly the black one ducked, allowed two cold-seeking missiles to pa.s.s him, and covered his face and chest with his wings. The mountainside instantly yawned, sending black, sulfuric smoke into the air. Lilith screeched as an unseen force yanked her body into the cavern "Nooo, husband, I beg you!" she screamed. The mountain sealed.

Missiles made contact, missing their target, Lilith. The explosion quaked the mountainside. Clips and weapons flew out of hands as human bodies flattened to the ground from the impact. A slow rumble sounded overhead. The team got up quickly. No one fired; everyone froze, looked up, and began running.

"Avalanche!" Damali hollered.

"It all comes full circle," the huge predator hissed, touching down before them to block their retreat. His focus narrowed on Carlos as he lowered his head. "I'll see you back in h.e.l.l, where you were born!"

A black arc snared all gunfire. A sword materialized in Damali's hand. She swung; Carlos pushed her to fall, and made her miss the Chairman's throat by a millimeter.

"No," Carlos shouted. "Not yet!"

"Bring me my book," a low voice rumbled behind the ent.i.ty that disappeared.

The team's attention immediately shot to the fast-moving white threat behind them. Small knots of humanity fanned out, sought rock formations, anything to get behind as a s.h.i.+eld. But there was nothing, simply a flat, two-hundred-yard glen, then they would fall over the edge of the world, pushed by ice, rocks, snow, and dirt.

"Everybody come together!" Carlos yelled.

"Hold the line!" Damali shouted, moving to his side. "Temple formation! Don't separate!"

Bodies slammed against bodies. All eyes turned toward the white-and-brown sea of mother earth hurling toward them. Carlos and Damali stood in a north-south position, back to back with the team between them. He opened his hands; she caught the end of his s.h.i.+eld, arcing a dome of golden, impermeable light over the group.

Initially rocks and pebbles leading the avalanche bounced and skittered off the dome, making them cringe, but they all closed their eyes, said a prayer, and braced their bodies for the death impact.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of ice pushed the dirt over the dome, making all but the two Neteru's holding the s.h.i.+eld, fall.

Carlos and Damali could feel the entire team being moved inch-by-inch, backward while they strained to keep their position.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, all motion stopped, leaving the team sealed within an icy white tomb.

Breathing hard, Carlos kept his eyes shut while team members stood slowly, glancing up in disbelief. Damali's head dropped forward, her arms shook from the pressure, and for the first time since the chaos began, her injury started to burn and throb, making her painfully aware it was there.

Marlene's attention snapped toward Damali, as her side of the s.h.i.+eld began to give way. "Medic! We've got a Neteru down!"

Berkfield quickly shoved toward her. Carlos peeped over his shoulder and his side of the s.h.i.+eld buckled.

"Keep your concentration, man!" Damali shouted. "I'm all right. It's a flesh wound, Carlos."

She lowered her head but kept her arms outstretched, muscles in her arms shook as pain carved at her exposed shoulder blade.

"I'm looking at bone and gristle, hon," Berkfield said nervously, opening his hands and lowering them slowly toward her wound.

"Don't," Damali ordered. "It's a demon nick, Council level or worse. You're a sacred blood healer and the s.h.i.+t will burn like h.e.l.l." Sweat covered her forehead and she coughed as nausea from slowly setting shock began to claim her.

"Seal her up," Carlos said through his teeth. "That s.h.i.+t will make her sick.""No," Damali said, her voice losing some of its strength. "It'll f.u.c.k up my concentration when the burn goes down. I won't be able to hold the s.h.i.+eld."

"You ain't gonna last another five minutes, baby," Marlene whispered, glancing up with the team as the dome began to buckle and yawn.

Bits of ice and rock began to rain inside the dome as Marlene spoke. Carlos's knees bent slightly, and he strained against the fissures like a man holding up the weight of the world. "You've lost a lot of blood."

"It was a vamp nick from the Chairman, not Level Seven. My system will fight it, I'm..." Damali's words trailed off as delirium from blood loss began to make her woozy.

"I said seal her up! That's an order," Carlos shouted. "I got this. Heal her."

Still the team hesitated, but the golden light protecting them got brighter. Carlos suddenly dropped his hands and turned, his focus beyond the group. Team members covered their heads in reflex but the dome never wavered. He walked toward Damali, who still had her hands outstretched, her head dropped forward, rivulets of sweat running down her temples and her nose, making her keep her eyes sealed shut.

"You have got to trust me," Carlos said near her ear. "Just like I have to trust you. We're both strong," he said, taking her hands within his, as she fell forward against his chest, "but sometimes we have to pick up the slack for one another." He looked at Berkfield. "Heal her."

Carlos handed Damali off to Marlene and walked to the edge of the globe they'd created. Damali's screams almost shattered his concentration, but there was something more important than individual pain: the survival of the family. Damali would live. But the wound had to be cleaned out and sealed.

As Berkfield slit his palm with a Bowie and sent the sacred to chase the unholy out of Damali's wound, Carlos allowed her screams of agony to make him stronger. Berkfield's agonized hiss as his palm's covered Damali's shoulder and the wound opened on his back made it all the more maddening while the healing happened behind Carlos. The sound of Damali's cries, breathing, the smell of blood, the exit of sulfur, the scent of spent vomit, sweat, tremors, tears, wails, pain. Never again.

He remembered it all so clearly now. Her screams of agony, hysteria, how they'd clawed his seed from her womb. Blackness had entered his lungs, polluting his system, making him a carrier. His vibrations had affected the team, had strained the dynamics for months, adding to the contagion, had threatened his woman's existence... had rendered confusion as an illusion. It wasn't a concussion from the car accident. He'd taken the Chairman's throne; it had attempted to take him by force, blood-rape sacrilege. They'd wanted the worst of him to step forward, then as Zang Ho had said, so be it. The head of the Chairman, then the book lodged in his double's chest would expel and open. A simultaneous. .h.i.t had to go down. He had to kill the worst in himself. As far as Lilith went, he had no choice but to let the Devil deal with his own wife.

Carlos sat slowly on the ground and crossed his legs Indian style with his back to the frightened team and Damali as she recovered.

He was cool. He was one with the elements. He was snow-f.u.c.king ice. He was fire-molten lava. He was stone-a vast cavern of secrets protecting his family under his granite arch. He was the shadow of the night-never to be revealed to the enemy. He was the weapon.

Damali stirred slowly, her gaze immediately going to the holding s.h.i.+eld and over to Carlos. All eyes followed hers as she sat up.

"He's in deep meditation," Marlene said quietly. "Do not break his concentration, or we'll die."

Damali nodded as she stared at the cold puffs of breaths expelled by the warm bodies around her. Lips were blue; frost had begun to form on people's eyebrows, turning hair white and skin gray. "We have to get out from under the s.h.i.+eld and generate heat," she said quietly.Carlos nodded but didn't turn, however, his slight movements made all eyes instantly land on him.

Fear was etched in frigid relief within all expressions. Damali knew what they were thinking; it was a silent scream at the forefront of everyone's mind. How long would this hold? How long would they be entombed? How long could their bodies withstand the elements before freezing, subzero temperatures killed them?... As the bodies dropped, and the days pa.s.sed, would the worst of human starvation turn them into the beasts they all fought, making them hunger for human flesh to stop the pain?

She calmly crossed her legs where she sat and placed both hands together and closed her eyes. She envisioned an orb of red heat between her palms. Slowly her body began to warm and she offered the gift of heat to the others, becoming one with the elements. She was controlled fire. Her family was warmth, love, hope, joy; all that she had she would gladly share. She was sunlight and fresh air. She was a child of the universe... She was melting snow; she was spring, and dawn, and new rivers that flowed over the golden dome to offer Tibetan valleys the first element, the basis of woman-water.

They sat that way for hours through the night. Her back to Carlos on one side of the dome; his back to hers on the other. Large chunks of snow fell away in thunderous echoes, sliding over the golden circ.u.mference, opening the top to new dawn.

Carlos didn't move until enough of the snow had melted away from the edges of the protective enclosure. Everyone understood that soft walls could still pose a danger. No one moved until they heard Rider's "All clear." She and Carlos both opened their eyes, stood up at the same time, and craned their necks to a sound in the distance that even Big Mike hadn't heard.

"Choppers in the distance," Carlos said, stepping up higher in the snow and s.h.i.+elding his eyes to the sun.

"They've picked up our locator beacons," Damali said, facing the direction Carlos stared, watching the new day's light. She glanced at him and kept her words private. "You were awesome."

He glanced at her. "You weren't too bad yourself," he said, returning his gaze to the horizon. "Good teamwork. Woulda frozen to death without you." He looked at her for a moment. "I couldn't have done it all alone."

She nodded and kept her gaze toward the approaching choppers. "Neither could I have. Remind me to thank you properly, later."

The team stared at General Quai Lou in total disbelief. Damali and Carlos glanced at the two Black Hawk helicopters idling in the distance. Heavy guns were trained on their team; nervous eyes watched for a sign of resistance. Itchy fingers rested against triggers.

"You have destroyed the breeder female our agency was most concerned about. Therefore, it is time for you to go back to the U.S. and to leave China."

Carlos and Damali shared a glance.

"There's another one still out there. The male," Damali said, trying to keep her tone civil.

"We are aware of that, but after the potential reckless endangerment to the natural environment... an avalanche almost reached a village. If this had been Beijing, it would have been disastrous. The female is destroyed; the vortexes that Dr. Zeitloff described should be sealed."

"Your weapons caused the avalanche," Carlos protested in a low, threatening tone. "Monk Lin tried to warn you. Up here, conventional weapons wouldn't work. The only reason you aren't picking body parts out of the snow is because of the Naksong's teachings."

"Yeah, you need to recognize," Damali said curtly, her eyes sweeping her team and recounting heads to rea.s.sure herself that everyone was still there.The general placed his hands behind his back. "Your service has been invaluable and most appreciated. The demoness that has been terrorizing our region and spreading infection is no more. The male is on the move and headed back to where you are from.

We will a.s.sist you in visas, equipment, and reentry into your own country, and wish you well." He turned away, dismissing them with a wave of his hand. His officers dropped rope ladders and there was no more discussion to be had.

"You believe this s.h.i.+t?" Berkfield said, trudging forward.

"Yeah, I do," Carlos said and spat. "That's why I hate working for the government."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Once the choppers touched down in Lhasa, it was obvious to them all. No one was fooled by the general's c.o.c.ky display; the U.S. arm of the world organization had obviously levied serious pressure to reacquire its own force.

Marines stood at attention. Two heavily decorated men stepped forward, nodded to General Quai Lou, and approached the Guardian squad.

"I'm General McHenry," the first man said, his hard hazel eyes scouring the group. "This is General Swainkoff," he added, gesturing toward the silent man with a steel gray stare. "You've been briefed. We have a situation."

The team looked at the huge military plane before them and shared glances of concern.

"You suit up on the plane. We have weaponry you'll need. Military-reinforced Humvees will pick you up at LAX, and our drivers will take you wherever you need to go to quell the disturbance."

"What disturbance?" Damali asked, thrusting her chin up as Carlos folded his arms in defiance.

"The gates of h.e.l.l have literally opened up, ma'am," General McHenry said; then he and General Swainkoff turned, received a salute from their line, and walked up the steps of the plane.

Carlos leaned forward, his gaze sweeping the marines that never blinked on the team's flank. "Number one, I don't like being in the air at night any more than you do, but if what they say is true, and Highway 405 and the 10 are blocked with multicar pileups and bodies, plus the 110, the 105, and the 101 are all f.u.c.ked up, I don't see any other way in, except for side streets, which are treacherous." He looked at Damali for confirmation and support. Receiving her nod, he pressed on. "Number two; if downtown L.A. is already burning, it seems a little late. Whatever was there has come and gone, most likely. We've gotta chopper in using Black Hawks, then we'll do this the old-fas.h.i.+oned way, on foot."

"Yeah, but the problem is," Shabazz said, "we don't know exactly what we're looking for. We know it's the Chairman, but how do you find that rat b.a.s.t.a.r.d? Lilith was our only way to draw him out when she made a grab for Carlos." Shabazz's cool glare held all eyes.

"We've got one serious demon down, one more to go," Damali said. "It's-"

"We've got two more to go, baby," Carlos said, his gaze raking the team geared in black fatigues and strapped to the hilt with weapons.

"Two?" she said, dropping her voice to pull the team in closer, never leaving Carlos's gaze. "Talk to me."

"Why do you think I blocked your slice at the Chairman's throat?"

Bodies eased back discreetly. Looks of concern rippled down the flight bench. Carlos's eyes darkened.

"You kill him first, and The Book of the d.a.m.ned will open inside the one from Level Seven, and he'll have access to everything in it. You think what the generals told us about was the actual Armageddon?" Carlos shook his head. "This ain't s.h.i.+t. This is practice, a warm-up session for them."

"Then, what do you propose?" Damali said. She kept her gaze focused on Carlos's eyes.

"We have to do a simultaneous. .h.i.t and make a grab for the book. Both of them have to be in the same location at the same time to pull it off."

"That's the point, dude," Rider said, blowing out a hard breath. "Damali isn't in phase, so there's no draw. You make the males battle nuts, but we still don't own a target location."

"Wait a minute," Damali said, still holding Carlos's gaze. "When the Chairman attacked, he said something about things coming full circle."

"I hear you, and he said he'd meet me in h.e.l.l, where I was born," Carlos said, shaking his head. "But this ain't the time to take a squad to a subterranean level, baby."

"Word," Big Mike said, pounding several fists. "Suicide."

Damali's gaze drifted toward the window, manipulating the puzzle pieces in her mind. "That's not where you were born," she said, her voice distant. "At least not to his empire."

Carlos stared at her.

"Where were you born, Carlos?" Damali said, her voice an urgent murmur. "Where did you receive the turn bite?"

Carlos absently rubbed the side of his neck. A s.h.i.+ver of memory made the invisible tattoo over the wound burn. "In the woods... when I handed off money to Nuit."

Damali nodded. "But it wasn't Nuit's bite. It was the Chairman's that created the discrepancy with supernatural law. Right?" Her eyes scanned the group. "That's a power center for him and for you, because he turned you instantly, didn't observe the dead- three-nights rule."

"Well, it's gotta be a lucky place for hombre," Jose said with a nervous smile. "One small technicality and our brother would have been locked down for life."