Paranormal Realities Box Set (17 page)

“And force you, Kizzy, to return with
them,” Rom said.

“If he wants Kizzy, then give him Kizzy.”
Billy waved his cattle prod. “I just want Juliette back.”

“My prince awaits you.” The ghoul's
yellow eyes, gleaming brightly from beneath his stringy hair, fixed on me as he
made the pronouncement with a jeering smile.

“My bad.” Zen grimaced. “I forgot a ghoul
communicates psychically with the vampire who made him and the ghoul is under
the vamp's control.”

“Really?” Petra said. “You just
remembered that crucial detail and all you can say is 'my bad'?”

“In my defense I didn’t think the psychic
connection could span the dimensions but—”

“Who cares right now?” I yelled and
turned to Rom. He still had the .45 caliber on me, which made me mad. Furious
in fact. I walked toward him.

“Halt!” Rom shook the gun for emphasis.
“I shall fire.”

“I don’t do well with people holding guns
on me. I tend to prefer they shoot me rather than threaten me.” Stopping only
when the gun barrel touched my belly, I placed a hand on top of the gun and
continued, “I’m not leaving Juliette and Franky over there. So if you’re gonna
kill me then you better go for it.”

As we stared into each other’s eyes, I
tried to make mine as steely and determined as his. More steely and determined
than my insides actually were. For long moments I waited to feel the familiar
fire burning of a gunshot wound in my gut. Instead, the coldness began to seep
out of Rom’s gaze and in its place was the slightest flicker of uncertainty.
Maybe my poker face was better than I’d thought.

“If he shoots me,” I announced with
bravado I didn’t feel. “The rest of you be sure to use my blood to open the vortex
and push those things back through.” In reality I wanted to cry. Who wouldn’t
want to cry if her boyfriend wanted to kill her? But then I seemed to bring out
that side of people.

The gun began to tremble.

“Entreaties,” Rom said. “See reason,
Kizzy. You observed the wave hit New Rome. When two dimensions are penetrated,
and the space-time continuum is disrupted, do you not think there may be
consequences for a third dimension?”

“Natural disasters?” I asked in
confusion. But then I remembered something about a theoretical butterfly
effect: The theory that the flapping of the butterfly’s wings could cause a
tornado a half a world away by a ripple effect.

“Natural disasters are not natural,"
Rom shouted. "The oracle foretold the consequence of your actions Kizzy.
My mission here was to stop you from opening a portal from this world to the
dimension of Dorcha. That was my sworn duty. I tried to discourage you. I tried
to delay you. I tried to stop you short of physical force. Yet I failed and the
great wave you call tsunami resulted in my dimension of Augustinia.”

“We don’t even know if the tsunami was
real or a vision in the psychomanteum reflecting your fears. You said so
yourself.” I knew I was trying to convince myself as much as I wanted to
convince Rom. Killing thousands in another world wasn't something I wanted on
my conscience.

“I may wish it so, but I know in my heart
the truth. If you were to enter Dorcha..." He paused. When he spoke again
his words were almost a whisper. "A Clavis in Dorcha? The consequences
could be catastrophic not only for Augustinia but for this world as well.”

I nodded. “But isn’t it possible the way
to put things right for Augustinia—the way to stop more natural
disasters—is to return the ghoul and the ogre to Dorcha and get back
Juliette and Franky?"

His frown darkened further.

"Then there would be no further
disruption of the—what did you call it?—the space-time continuum,”
I continued. “Until what I did is undone, perhaps disasters will continue to
strike your world.”

Rom shook his head.

“Your reasoning lacks sense and will lead
to destruction.” His tone was harsh but the gun began to shake harder. Did that
mean he was about to fire?

The seconds of his indecision crept by as
hours. Finally, Rom's expression went from steely to defeated.

“But though I fear the consequences for
my family, I find I cannot bring myself to kill you.” Rom lowered the gun.
“Once more I have failed in my duty to protect my home, my people. I should
have killed you when first I saw you. When I did not yet feel...as I feel now.”

What had just happened? On the one hand,
Rom had pointed a gun at me. On the other he'd abandoned his duty—a big
thing in his world—out of caring for me. Should I be devastated because
he tried to kill me or thrilled he'd chosen me over his honor...or even his own
family?

Reaching up a hand, I placed my palm
caressingly over his cheek.

“It’s all right. Obviously, I think it’s
a good thing you didn’t kill me,” I tried to joke. He didn’t even crack a hint
of his quirky smile. “Besides,” I said. “I know I’m right about this.”

“She’s right,” Zen agreed.

“If you are in error—”

“I’m not,” I pretended with more
certainty than I felt. I squeezed his arm. “Let’s open this sucker up.”

“Yeah,” piped in Billy. “Would you
pussies get going? These monsters smell like rotting garbage. I’m about to hurl
here.” He pointed his prod at Senji. “But the smell could be coming from the
Chink kid.”

“That’s Jap kid to you, asswipe,” Senji
drawled.

“They will try to take you once the
vortex is open.” Rom inclined his head toward the monsters.

“Yes. I guess we’ll have to stop them.

Turning on my heel I crossed to Senji and
took the Swiss army knife. I held the blade to my palm for a few seconds before
chickening out.

“You do it, Senji.” I offered the knife back
to my friend. “For some reason I can’t cut myself.”

“Let me do it,” Billy said. “I’ve wanted
to stab you for a while now, Taylor.”

“Quiet your mouth,“ Rom roared.

“Whatsa matter,” Billy said with a
chortle. “Just a minute ago you were gonna shoot her.”

“Quiet your mouth or I shall quiet it.”
Rom's words echoed thunderously in the tunnel.

Billy backed away and moved next to
Quinn, murmuring to him and laughing as if he’d achieved something by baiting
Rom. What an idiot.

 
I held out my hand to Senji again.

“One more thing before you do that.” Zen
strode to a huge hard sided suitcase along the wall I hadn’t noticed before. He
must have stashed it there earlier while Rom and I were in my bedroom. Zen
opened the case and pulled out what looked like a climbing harness, which he
strapped around me. He returned to the suitcase and drew out a length of cord
and then attached it to my harness with a carabiner clip. Using a heavy-duty
nail gun, he secured a metal loop in the wall and then clipped the other end of
the cord to the loop with another carabiner.

“Thanks.” I turned back to a slightly
queasy looking Senji.

Covering his eyes with one hand, he made
a stabbing motion with the other, completely missing my hand.

“For heavens sake!” Zen grabbed the knife
from Senji. “You’re going to cut her hand off.” He scored my hand with the
blade before I had time to flinch. The pain burned like the most extreme paper
cut I’d ever felt. On the scale of one to ten of lifetime pain, a one. Rom
wanting to shoot me scored a seven. My father and all that stuff: an eleven.
This cut was not so bad, I decided.

Taking a deep breath, I advanced with
careful steps to the entrance to the vortex, my hand held palm up.

“Everybody stay back,” I said, glancing
over my shoulder.

“Yeah and keep your attention on the
monsters,” Zen cautioned.

When I reached the center of the design’s
swirl I tipped my hand over and allowed the blood pooling there to drip down.
We waited but nothing happened.

“It’s not working,” Petra exclaimed.

“Your adrenaline is not sufficient,"
Rom said. “The brain’s imaginings of events of great emotion may assist.”

Squeezing my hand to force out more
blood, I imagined the last moments on the bridge with Adam. Clenching my eyes
shut, I viewed the memory’s video of the second I was shot and began falling
with my brother in my arms. Opening my eyes, I knelt and placed my palm on the
floor. A boom sounded and the familiar glow rose to hover over the floor. The
concrete beneath my hand shifted. Jerking away, I scrambled upright and stepped
back as the swirl began to rotate. The jet engine sound of the vortex rumbled
low and grew louder as the velocity of the spin increased.

 
The ogre trumpeted a cry and the ghoul snickered gleefully.
Twisting around I saw the two monsters surrounded by Zen, Petra, Chase, Senji
and Billy. Only Zen seemed aggressive in his stance, holding his prod like a
sword. The smart guy expression Billy usually wore had switched to fear and his
prod almost touched the ground. Petra, Chase and Senji at least held their
weapons upright, but they shook so badly I didn't think their prods were
usable.

“Bring the monsters. Hurry,” I shouted.

Senji stepped out from in front of them
and Zen lunged at the ogre to get him moving. The ogre took one step and then
another, trudging forward. The ghoul kept pace with him.

The debris in the tunnel whipped around
us and without glancing back I knew the vortex was at full strength.

All seemed to be going as planned until
the ghoul spoke.

“Come to me, Kizzy.” The ghoul’s mouth
moved, but the voice was that of Prince Leopold and it echoed through the
tunnel. The effect was so startling, Petra gasped. The ghoul reacted by
pivoting to the side and lurching into Petra’s face. “And you my delicious
looking Petra must come too.”

 
Petra screamed and scurried away, giving the ghoul an opening
in the “guard”. He pushed past her before launching himself toward me.

“He’s making a break,” Zen yelled.

Senji and Chase stood rooted to their
spots with matching blank expressions. Rom moved to intercept the ghoul and
positioned himself between the monster and me. Zen, who had been at the ogre’s
back with his prod ready to make contact, made a slight twitch in Rom’s
direction as if to assist him.

Taking advantage of the moment of
inattention, the ogre rounded on Zen and swung a branch-like arm. The monster
knocked Zen off his feet and he landed with a splash in a puddle on the floor
of the tunnel.

Billy rushed forward clicking the trigger
on his prod as he moved. The ogre stepped into the puddle and brought a
snowshoe sized foot up preparing to stomp on Zen’s chest. While the foot was
still on the upswing, Billy’s prod jammed into the center of the ogre’s chest
and fired its electric charge.

The impact created the same burning flesh
smell we knew well by now. But, unlike past strikes, the ogre made no scream.
Instead, he twitched and shook before going rigid. His bulging eyes seemed to
inflate almost to the bursting point before rolling back until only the
greenish whites showed. The ogre teetered like a felled tree and began to
topple. After a few seconds of wavering, he dropped face down and unmoving on
the ground.

“Omigod.” I crawled to the ogre’s side
and turned him on his back. With my ear to his chest I heard no heartbeat.
“What do we do?”

The ghoul made an attempt to leap at me
and Rom fired at him. The ghoul reeled with the impact to his hip area, falling
into the wall of the tunnel. He pulled himself up and limped off down the
tunnel in the direction of escape. Rom brought his arm up and aimed with both
hands cupping the gun. He fired and the bullet ricocheted off a brick a foot
away from the ghoul's head.

“No,” Zen screamed. “A shot to the head
could kill him. We need him alive.”

The ghoul’s steps quickened and he
disappeared. Billy threw down his cattle prod and dashed after him.

The ogre still hadn’t moved.
Electrocution
,
I thought.

“Does his heart yet beat?” Rom asked.

Shaking my head I did the only thing I
could think of: I pounded the ogre’s chest. Sitting with my knees on either
side of the ogre's waist, I started regular compressions to what I assumed was
his heart area. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the vortex decreasing in area
and the jet engine sound faded.

“Somebody. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,”
I cried.

“No possible way,” Chase said.

“I’m with Chase,” Senji said. “I’m not
putting my mouth on that thing’s.”

Zen shook his head. Billy and Petra were
nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, my attempts to revive him had
no effect. The ogre still hadn’t taken a breath.

“Rom? Please,” I said, panting with the
exertion of keeping up the compressions.

Our eyes met and after a slight
hesitation, he knelt by the ogre’s head.

“Hold his nose shut and blow into his
mouth.”

Rom used his fingers to open the ogre’s
lips. He inhaled and bent over the ogre. Putting his mouth over the monster's,
he exhaled.