Bloodliner (31 page)

*****

 

Chapter 85

Jonah, Mavis, and Arthur followed Stanza as she wound her way through the forest of crystalline pillars in the chamber. Crunching
feratu
underfoot, they threaded through the glittering maze, aiming for the center of the vast space.

Up close, Jonah could see the pillars were rough and of varying sizes—some skinny enough to wrap his hand around, some too thick to bracket with both hands and still have thumbs and fingers touching. When he pressed his fingertips against the sparkling substance of the pillars, it felt cool, but not freezing cold; when he rapped his knuckles on the pillars, they felt sturdy as stone or solid metal, though they looked like glass or ice.

"What's it take to shatter these things?" Jonah knocked on a nearby pillar; it sounded solid as a block of granite.

"They're supposed to be unbreakable," said Stanza. "By vampires, at least."

Jonah heard a
crack
behind him and turned to see Arthur swinging Excalibur against one of the pillars.

"Unbreakable by Excalibur herself, as well," said Arthur. "That alone tells me these bars are reinforced by
sorcery
."

"It's all part of the design of this place," said Stanza. "It makes it harder to reach the final locks."

"What final locks?" said Jonah.

Stanza pointed at the middle of the ceiling, a distant point at the heart of the glowing concentric circles overhead. "The final locks of Empyrea. The ones you'll have to activate."

Jonah gaped at the faraway heights. "I will?" He sounded amazed. "I'll have to activate something
up there
?"

"You and Mavis both," said Stanza. "Three sets of locks, placed where vampires can't easily get to them."

"Why can't they?" said Mavis.

"Because of the bars." Arthur partially transformed and opened his wings. They folded and crumpled around the crystalline pillars, unable to fully extend. "The bars are too close together to spread out a wingspan and flap."

"Then how are
we
supposed to get up there?" Even as Jonah asked the question, he didn't want to hear the answer. He knew he wouldn't like it.

"You'll
climb.
" Stanza shot him a grim smile and continued her threading march among the pillars. "Shinny up the bars to the top."

"You're kidding," said Mavis. "That's a
long
way up."

"The bars are rough," said Stanza. "Plenty of handholds and footholds. You can make it."

Jonah's hands were sweating as he considered the climb. "Vampires can climb just as well as
we
can, can't they?" He secretly hoped his logic would give Stanza second thoughts about the plan.

But Stanza didn't reconsider. "They won't catch you in time if you get a good head start. That's why we need to get you up there ASAP."

At that moment, Jonah heard voices in the distance, from the direction of the door. Turning, he looked back through the field of transparent crystal pillars, glimpsing new arrivals in the brightening gray glow.

He recognized them immediately: Hercules, Alexander, Shakespeare, James, and Thomas. As they stood near the door and caught their breath, more ran in after them—the dozens of men and women who'd surrounded Genghis' caravan in the jungle and fought his army to a standstill.

As Jonah watched, a final few stragglers raced into the chamber. Then, Hercules slammed the metal door shut and flopped against it, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

"We made it!" said Hercules. "By Jupiter, we
outraced
those lunatics!"

"By the skin of our
teeth
," said Alexander.

Suddenly, Stanza shouted at them, catching Jonah by surprise. "Open that door!"

Hercules shouted back at her. "Stanza?" Stepping away from the door, he peered into the crystalline field. "Is that you?"

James jogged a few steps ahead of him and pointed. "There they are!"

Stanza shouted again. "You need to open that door!"

"But Genghis and his troops are right behind us," said Alexander. "They'll rush in any minute now!"

"That's what we want!" said Stanza. "Seal the door
after
they're all in here."

"Do you
want
them to obtain godlike powers?" said Shakespeare. "Do you know what Genghis Khan and his ilk will
do
with powers like those?"

"You'll have to trust me!" said Stanza. "Just
do
it! Get them all in here, seal the door, and keep them preoccupied till Jonah and Mavis finish their work!"

"But that's
nuts
," said Thomas. "What the
hell
?"

Without another word, Stanza whipped around and continued rushing through the crystal array. Jonah shrugged and followed.

As they ran onward, Jonah heard last words from Hercules, carried across the chamber by his booming bass voice. "I'll open it! But I hope you know what you're doing! This place could be a death trap for
us
as much as
them
."

Hercules grunted as he strained to pull open the door. Jonah heard the familiar
whoosh
of air as the seal broke between door and frame.

And then, for a moment, there was silence from that direction. The crackling of dried
feratu
corpses under the feet of Jonah, Stanza, Arthur, and Mavis was the loudest sound in the chamber.

But the quiet didn't last. A chorus of howls, shrieks, and roars echoed down the corridor beyond the door, getting closer. It was a cacophony of pure pandemonium, a riot of vampires' voices growing louder with every second.

Jonah wanted to turn and look back, but he didn't. No one else did, either. According to Stanza, they had to reach the final locks before anyone could stop them.

Hercules and his team were on their own.

*****

 

Chapter 86

Shakespeare listened from the doorway as the horde of vampire warriors boiled up the corridor toward him. They were a hundred or more strong, charging forth in a seething, screeching wave.

Once that swarm has overrun this cavern, the murder shall begin anew. None shall stand unscathed in the frenzied war for possession of Empyrea.

"How long do we have?" shouted Alexander as he ran among the troops, preparing a defensive formation.

"A moment or two ere the legion's upon us," said Shakespeare. "No more!"

Hercules threw back his head and roared like a lion. "Death is my mistress! She's carving their names in ebony as we speak!"

Alexander shared his spirit. "How many times have we stood against armies like this?" Grinning fiercely, he let loose a booming battle cry. "How many souls have we sent away
screaming
while we braided their
scalps
on our belts?"

Hercules stomped his feet, and the
feratu
-covered ground shook. "Never enough for the kings of the Earth! Never enough for hearts such as ours!"

It was then, in the space between breaths, in the breath before mayhem, that Shakespeare felt a chill rush up his spine. In spite of who he was and all he'd done and felt and seen, even he was not immune to the immensity of the moment.

An army of death raced toward the heart of Empyrea, raging and slavering for a prize out of myth. An outnumbered band of fighters waited in the shadows, laughing in the face of the bloodthirsty swarm.

Shoulder-to-shoulder, I stand with Alexander the Great himself, with the demigod Hercules, preparing for war. How many men how much greater than I have stood thus, side-by-side with one or the other, in battles mapping the fates of nations and gods?

James seemed to share the enthusiasm. His eyes were wide and his voice quivered with excitement as he stared into the dark corridor alongside Shakespeare. "Where do you want me, Master?"

"Wherever the fight takes you," said Shakespeare. "Our task is to hold them here, that our allies may complete their vital work in the core."

James listened to the approaching storm...then looked at Hercules and laughed. "They don't stand a
chance
,
do
they?"

"Not a chance!" Hercules bounded through the doorway and bellowed at the oncoming army. "
Hurry
, you
cowards
! The only thing that bores us more than
fighting
you is
waiting
for you!"

The leading edge of the approaching tide pushed around the last corner and appeared—a knot of snarling, fanged maniacs with machine guns, red eyes glinting in the darkness. Their answer to Hercules' call was to fire off rounds at the doorway.

"Back, everyone!" Shakespeare quickly backed away from the door, pulling James along with him. "Get ready!"

Breathing fast, veins blazing with the liquid fire of his surging
feratu
, Shakespeare squared his shoulders and prepared for the fight. His troops fanned out around him, and his closest allies lined up alongside him in the front rank—Hercules and James at his right, Alexander and Thomas at his left.

Howling and wailing, the first warriors poured through the doorway.

"For paradise!" Hercules downed the first enemy to set foot in the chamber with a single blow from his club. "For Empyrea!"

"For Empyrea!" said Shakespeare as he leaped into battle.

*****

 

Chapter 87

Jonah, Stanza, Arthur, and Mavis reached the middle of the chamber just as Genghis' horde crashed through the doorway. The sounds of battle erupted, meaning time was running out to open the last locks of Empyrea. Hercules, Shakespeare, and their allies would slow the enemy's advance; the forest of crystal pillars would prevent vampires from taking flight and racing straight to the locks. But sooner or later, Genghis or his men would slip through. Eventually, they would reach the middle of the chamber, climb the bars, and attack Jonah and Mavis.

Which was why, as much as Jonah hated heights, he knew he had to force himself to start climbing right away.

Stanza's pep talk helped push him along. "Get up there! Both of you! Or do you
want
to end up as
juice pouches
for thirsty vampires?"

Jonah wiped his sweaty, bloody hands on his pants. "I'm not real big on heights. That's...wow." His gaze followed one of a ring of close-set pillars climbing to the middle of the concentric circles on the ceiling. "Looks even
higher
from here." He guessed the pillar was sixty or seventy feet high where it touched the ceiling.

"Don't look down," said Stanza. "Focus on what's ahead of you."

"What about when we have to come
back
down
?" said Jonah.

Stanza looked toward the battle, which was intensifying. "Okay." Face grim, she turned to Jonah. "You
have
to do this. Just get it through your head. You have
no
other
choice
. You
can't
fail."

Jonah's heart pounded as he stared up at the heights looming above him. "What if you and Arthur went up with us? Just to talk us through it?"
Stanza shook her head. "We have to stay down here and keep the bad guys off the bars." She pulled out her trusty machine gun with the ironwood point ammo and swung it up against her chest. "This spot'll be crawling with them in nothing flat."

"Speaking of the devil," said Arthur, "I see one of them breaking through the line right now! He's heading this way!"

"Time's up!" said Stanza. "Get up there!"

Jonah put his hands on the pillar and swallowed hard. "What do we do when we get to the top?"

"The same thing you did to all the other locks." Stanza glanced at the running figure weaving through the pillars on its way toward them. "Press your bloody hand against the plate. Wait till it glows and sparks, then move on to the next one."

"How will we know when we've done whatever it is we're supposed to do?" said Mavis.

"When you've opened all three locks," said Stanza.

"But how will we know for sure?" said Mavis.

"You'll know.
Believe me
, you'll know." Stanza switched off the safety on her machine gun. "Now get going!"

Mavis started climbing, but Jonah held back. He kept hoping another solution would present itself, but none did. As scared as he was of heights, he had to scale the pillar; otherwise, he would
definitely
be doomed when Genghis' vampiric forces broke through.

Jonah wiped his bloody hands on his pants one more time, then took hold of the pillar. Pulling himself up, he wrapped his legs around the pillar and plugged his heels into footholds in the crystal.

He pushed up from there and moved his hands higher. Held on as he raised his feet to new footholds.

And he tried not to look down. Not even when Stanza's machine gun chattered, and someone let loose an agonized scream nearby.

No matter what, Jonah knew he could
never
look down. It was absolutely the only way he could survive this. It was the only way that a key like him could keep from falling to his death long enough to help open the locks of Empyrea.