Imperium (Caulborn) (25 page)

I let out a hacking cough as Gearstripper pounced on the bed and seized Courageous. “Who the frak are you and what are you doing to Vinnie?” he demanded.

The Commander twisted in the gremlin’s grasp and was reaching onto his utility belt when Petra calmly removed the action figure. I hadn’t realized she was back in the room.

“Easy, Gearstripper,” Petra said, stroking the top of Gears’ head. “The Commander is a friend, an advisor, sent by Vincent’s father, and he speaks through this toy.” She turned her big brown eyes to the Commander’s plastic ones. “You said Vincent has contracted a virus. What do we have to do?”

Courageous seemed to be relieved to be speaking to Petra. “Take him to the phasilion behind the Children’s Museum, it’s the closest. Petra, you go with Vincent, but have Gearstripper stay with the car. Hurry now.” The Commander kept talking, but the world chose that moment to spin, so I missed whatever he’d said.

Petra scooped me up in her arms and carried me into the living room. The world fuzzed around me. I was dimly aware of Petra calling to Gears to open the door and to grab her keys. She hustled me down the stairs to the parking lot. She carried me like a baby, and we were halfway across the lot when I realized she wasn’t wearing shoes or a coat. She wouldn’t feel the cold or the roughness of the asphalt if she didn’t want to.

Gears was chattering beside her, his voice a high-pitched droning sound. I was placed into the shotgun seat and Gears perched on the dashboard of Petra’s Audi. She took off through the city streets. The pounding rain sounded like machine gun fire against the car’s roof. Petra drove smoothly, weaving around the few other cars we passed. I rolled my head to look at her.

Her dark hair was plastered to her head and I realized she was wearing a white T-shirt with no bra. A soaking wet T-shirt. I giggled at that. The world was fuzzy and cold, and I just wanted to sleep, but Gears kept shaking me every time my eyes closed.

“Sorry, Vinnie,” he said. “But the Commander said you had to stay awake.” I didn’t remember him saying that, but I didn’t feel like arguing. Petra’s face was a mask of determination, a nice counter to the concern that shone in Gears’ yellow eyes.

I opened my mind to my followers, the jolt snapping me back awake. I focused on Lotholio.
Need help, meet me in the ritual chamber. Bring the same four priests.
The world swam again and I had to abruptly close my mind.

Petra’s window shattered and glass sprayed across the front seat of the car. Petra cried out in surprise and swerved. The car slammed into a parking meter. Gears hit the windshield and then fell onto the floor between my legs. A neo-gremlin leaped into the car, landed on Petra’s lap, and lunged forward. It bit her right on the jugular. There were a series of snaps and a squeal of pain as its teeth broke against her skin. Petra snarled, took the thing’s head between her hands and squeezed. Its skull exploded, splattering Petra and the inside of the car with silver gore.

Petra cursed and threw the corpse out of the window. Then she checked on my blankets and backed the car up. The parking meter was slightly bent, and the hood of the car was tilted funny, but we were still drivable. “Don’t worry, Petra,” Gears said. “I’ll fix the car up for you.” Petra nodded, gunned the engine and we surged forward. Another neo-gremlin tumbled forward off of the roof, bounced along our hood and fell over the edge of the car. There was a thump-thump sound, and the determined line of Petra’s mouth quirked up.

A third gremlin clawed its way onto the hood of the car and Petra slammed on the brakes. This one had been expecting the move and drove its talons into the car’s hood, keeping itself from being thrown. Gears lunged back up onto the dashboard and squatted down. From the back, he looked like a miniature gargoyle. He threw his head forward and opened his mouth, his little body contorting like he was screaming as loud as he could. I didn’t hear anything, but the gremlin on the hood threw its hands over its ears and fell to its knees.

“How do you like it?” Gears hissed under his breath.

Petra seized on the distraction and gunned the engine again. The neo-gremlin slammed against the windshield and then rolled off the side of the car. “Is Vincent all right?” she asked Gears. The gremlin hopped onto my chest.

“He’s still awake, but he’s really cold. His eyes are all glassy, too.”

“We’re not far from the phasilion,” Petra said. “Hang on, sweetie.” The world around me flickered in and out, and then Petra was lifting me out of the car. We were in the alleyway now. The rain was cold and coming down so hard that it hurt as it struck my face. “Help me find it, Vincent,” Petra whispered. “Where do I look?”

“Dumpster,” I said. Petra carried me over. “Her name is Aviorla.”

“Aviorla!” Petra yelled. “Vincent Corinthos is hurt, he needs to get to the Bright Side. Please, open yourself for me!” A patch of the bricks in the wall began to shimmer, and Petra barreled forward. My head was already spinning, so I couldn’t tell when Aviorla granted us passage to the Bright Side. Then the rain was gone and there was sunlight. We’d arrived.

“Thank Aphrodite,” Petra whispered as she bolted into the cathedral.

“We need Lotholio,” I croaked. I already felt a little stronger, but I needed a ritual to purge the sickness from my body. “Top floor.” Petra took the steps by twos, carrying me like an infant. She kicked open one of the ritual chamber doors, tearing it free from its hinges. It clattered on the ground as she ran across it. Lotholio was there, along with the four high priests.

“Put him in the basin, Lady Petra,” Lotholio said, gesturing to the water. The door rose from the ground and settled mostly back into place. One of the Urisk surrounding the basin nodded to himself. Petra tore the blankets from me and settled me in the water. I was mostly submerged, my head resting on Petra’s knees. Her hair hung down in soaked vines and her dark eyes were huge with fear.

“Stay with me, Vincent,” she whispered. “Please, stay with me.”

Lotholio and the priests stood in a circle around the basin and joined hands. They began to chant in their own language. Then their five voices suddenly seemed like five hundred, a thousand, more, as they telepathically contacted my followers and drew their prayers into the ceremony. Lotholio’s voice rose above the others. I didn’t hear what he said, so much as felt it. Light. Life. Faith. Strength. Emotions and sensations flooded through me, and my body began to spasm. Petra held me tight, keeping my head above water.

I felt something being peeled away from me. Something that didn’t want to let go. It was like trying to peel away something that’s been super-glued to your skin, and a particularly hairy patch of skin, at that. I screamed in pain and stars flared in front of my eyes. The Urisk’s chanting grew louder and more faith flooded into me. I could feel the faith raking against the... infection, I guess. It felt like sandpaper being applied on the underside of my skin. My head cleared enough to focus, and I drew on their faith and used it to purge the disease from my body. A thin green haze rose from the pool, and I snarled as I summoned power to burn it from the world. There was a pulse of light and the strong scent of ozone in the air. The disease was gone.

I wearily pulled myself up, leaning on Petra for support. She felt my forehead and smiled. “You’re hot,” she said.

“So are you.”

She smiled wider and hugged me tight. I breathed in her smell and closed my eyes. I leaned against her for a few minutes, enjoying the feeling of being alive. Then I stood up and stepped out of the basin. I turned to the high priests. “Thank you,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say. Hallmark doesn’t exactly make “thanks for saving your god’s bacon” cards. I blessed them, granted them strength. It wasn’t enough, but it was all I could think of for the moment.

They left, and I walked over to Lotholio. “Thank you, my friend. You saved my life today.” Lotholio’s eyes paled slightly, the equivalent of blushing.

“We would be lost without you, Lord,” he said. I clapped him on the shoulder and used my powers to dry Petra and myself off. Now that I could finally think straight, I needed to get back to Boston and deal with Leevan.

Hostiles approach.

The words echoed in my head. Aegeon’s voice. “Show us,” I commanded. An image of five more of the crystal soldiers bloomed in my mind. They were approaching from the south. “Only five?” I asked.

Yes, Lord,
came the response.

Petra’s expression was confused. “The city’s about to be attacked again,” I explained. “We’ve got more of those crystal soldiers rolling in.” I looked at Lotholio and smiled. “Let them try,” I said. “Nothing’s going to get past Aegeon.”

Lotholio returned the smile.

“Vincent,” Petra said slowly, “I am hearing a voice in my head, and seeing pictures of crystal men.”

I blinked. “Huh. I kinda based Aegeon’s design on what I knew of you, hon. I didn’t mean to connect you together. It must’ve just happened.” Petra’s expression was thoughtful, but she didn’t say anything more.

Urisk approach.

“What?” I asked. An image of a farming crew formed in my mind. Twenty of them, pulling a cart loaded with the flowers that the Urisk milled for food. The crystal soldiers noticed them and changed their march to intercept. “Shit, no! Aegeon, will the farm crew make it in before the hostiles catch them?”

No.

“Fuck!” I lurched out of the ritual room. My strength was returning quickly, and the ritual had fully replenished my faith reserves. I was at a dead run by the time I’d cleared the fourth stair, and back at full strength. Petra was right behind me. We charged, barefoot, across the grass of the city toward the wall. “Aegeon!” I called. “Open, now!” A hole ten feet wide opened before us. I surged forward, Petra right on my heels.

A sonic boom blasted out as I shot forward. The world blurred around me and less than a second later, I had covered the distance to the hostiles. Dirt and rocks sprayed out as I skidded to a stop right between the crystal soldiers and the farm crew. They were about sixty feet apart. I threw my hands up and a wall of earth and stone erupted from the ground, separating the groups. The Urisk were on one side, the crystal soldiers and me on the other. I ground my teeth and the extended the wall all the way to Aegeon.

“Run to the city,” I yelled to the Urisk. “Don’t stop for anything.” I clenched my fists and turned to the crystal soldiers. Their bulk and the way they were lined up next to one another made me think of a crystalline football defensive line. “All right, boys, let’s dance.”

The first one swung a massive fist forward, much faster than its size should’ve allowed. I dodged, my speed taking me well out of the way before the strike came close. I stopped behind the soldier and whistled. “Over here, Waterford.”

The creature’s closest companions charged forward and I dashed away from them. They crunched into one another. I laughed out loud. After a night of scrambling away from zombies, neo-gremlins and plant golems, this was kind of fun. It was nice to be on the giving end for a change.

The red runes on the creatures’ chests were dark. Last time, they had brightened each time they were struck by pyrokinetic blasts and telekinetic pushes. That probably meant the explosives they were carrying were keyed to psychic energy. And since there were only five this time, either this was all my adversary had left, or they were carrying a bigger payload of explosives. I’d need to play this carefully.

I raised my arms again and columns of earth exploded from beneath the soldiers. They were thrown into the air and crashed down to the ground in a heap. They gathered themselves slowly, but they stood. “Who are you working for?” I demanded. “Who sent you?”

I couldn’t even tell if these things had mouths, or if they could understand my language, but I had to try. I caused roots to erupt from the ground and bind the creatures in place. They strained against these, and by the time they’d broken free, Petra was standing next to me. “What can I do to help?” she asked.

“Not sure,” I said. “They’re living bombs that detonate when exposed to psychic energy.” Petra nodded, then to my shock, charged the nearest creature. Her fists flashed out, striking the creature’s chest like a jackhammer. For its part, the creature seemed stunned by her attack. Fine lines appeared along its chest, and suddenly the creature shattered. A glowing orb of energy hovered in the air for a moment, and then vanished.

Petra looked over her shoulder at me and grinned mischievously. “Well sure,” I said. “Do it the easy way.”

Petra’s attack held my attention, so I hadn’t noticed the four other creatures lining up. They stood one behind the other, with their backs to the sun. The light illuminating their crystal bodies was so bright, it hurt to look at. Then a blazing lance of pure energy shot forth from them, amplified by each of the creatures’ bodies. The lance struck Petra square in the chest, and she was slammed into the wall I’d summoned.

There was a sickening crack, and a cloud of dirt and dust exploded all around us. When it had cleared, I could see that Petra had been blown clean through the wall. My heart rate tripled. My vision narrowed. I don’t remember climbing through the hole, but suddenly I was on the other side, staring down at the fragments of a shattered marble statue.

Chapter 22

Time seemed to stop around me. The whole world seemed absolutely still. Petra was shattered. The pieces of her torso that were intact had her T-shirt chiseled into them, and I could clearly make out a quarter of the Ghostbusters logo. A piece of her head let me see how wide her eyes were when she’d been struck. One of her hands was at my feet, her fingers extended as if to say, “Stop!”

I don’t know how long I stood there. It felt like forever. Red rimmed the edges of my vision, and something inside me snapped. I roared and flashed back through the hole. I struck the first creature so hard that my fist punched through his body. I turned to the next one and threw my arms out. Geysers of steam and water exploded beneath him, launching him into the air. I snarled and hurled one of its fellows right after it, and they struck each other with such force that they shattered as they collided in mid-air.