Specter Rising (Brimstone Network Trilogy) (11 page)

With a growl Emily emerged from her hiding place to help Stitch.

The dead Specter had dropped the chain that restrained the two awful beasts and they were now free and looking pretty wild.

Something told her Stitch was going to need all the help he could get.

The Fthaggua demon was running for the door.

Johanna Harkness quickly gave the situation a look. There were big, screaming monsters on one side of the room that looked like they could use her to pick their teeth after a meal, and then there was this little creep trying to escape while everybody was distracted.

She was all over this one.

“Going somewhere, buddy?” she said, running to block its way.

The demon stopped and studied her with glinting yellow eyes.

“I suggest you turn right around and go back into the room,” she said, doing everything she could to keep the tremor of fear from her voice.

“Or what?” the demon growled, flexing its long fingers. There were some pretty nasty-looking claws at the ends of those fingers, and for a brief moment she imagined them raking across her skin and how much that would hurt.

She almost got out of its way, but she held her ground, remembering how badly she wanted to be one of them . . . an agent of the Brimstone Network.

“Or else,” she threatened the creature.

The demon started to laugh at her, and she felt herself getting really mad. This ugly little thing had some nerve, laughing like that. She knew exactly what it was thinking too: that she was just some girl, no threat to anyone.

The Fthaggua demon leaped at her, its claws ready to rip and tear.

But it never got to her.

Her dogs were there to protect her. The pack attacked the demon. It looked really surprised as the invisible beasts started to savagely tear it apart.

Yep, she was just a girl, and no threat to anyone.

***

B
ogey needed an aspirin or maybe something stronger.

Trying to keep the dimensional passage open hurt like crazy, and there was nothing he would have liked better than to let it slam shut, but his friends were depending on him.

He couldn’t let them down.

It looked like
Wrestlemania
gone mental inside the room. The two monsters, the likes of which he’d never seen before, were going wild. Stitch and Emily were doing everything they could, but couldn’t seem to stop them.

Bogey knew how strong Stitch was, and couldn’t believe his eyes as he watched one of the berserker monsters take a full-on punch to the face from the patchwork man without even blinking. Not even Emily’s claws or teeth seemed to be able to do anything against the beast’s extra-thick flesh.

What the heck are these things?

He watched as Stitch was thrown across the room, crashing to the floor, and Emily was grabbed by the scruff of her neck and pushed facefirst into a nearby wall.

It was looking pretty grim.

Every instinct told Bogey to run.

The monsters were looking around for something else to smash when they saw him.

Little ol’ him, standing in front of their dimensional passage.

Could it have gotten any worse?

They let out a bloodcurdling scream and started across the room at him.

Bogey was really proud that he stayed put.

Since joining the Brimstone Network he had become quite brave. . . .

Or would brain damaged be more accurate?

“I got your back,” said a voice close by, and he turned slightly to see Dez struggling with his crutches.

He’d forgotten about the boy, thinking that maybe he’d exhausted himself when he’d rummaged around inside the Fthaggua’s head. He wasn’t exactly sure what Dez could do against the two monsters, but at least he wasn’t going to die alone.

Dez managed to get to his feet and seemed to be concentrating.

Bogey almost let out a scream of surprise as the two monsters stopped dead in their tracks.

“You did it, buddy,” Bogey said excitedly.
“Make them think that they’re chickens or something . . . we can beat the crap out of chickens.”

But then Dez had to go and ruin everything when he started to scream in pain, like somebody was tearing off his head.

“Somebody did this to them,” Dez wailed, tears streaming down his face. He dropped his crutches, falling to the floor. “Oh, god . . . somebody turned these poor people into . . . into these things. . . .”

It was pretty nasty news, and Bogey felt wicked bad, but it didn’t change the fact that the monsters—that used to be really nice people, he was sure—were again coming, and they were looking at him like he was a Happy Meal with a really cool toy inside.

The monsters were so close, he could smell them.

Bogey wanted to close his eyes, not wanting to see his death as it happened, but he couldn’t.

Dez was still lying on the ground, moaning in pain, attracting the attention of one of the monsters. It reached out a massive hand to grab him.

“Keep your paws off’a him!” Bogey screamed.

It was a stupid move; the other of the two super-uglies now turned his attention to him.

The monster roared, spewing a stream of spit all over him, and Bogey thought that was it. He was going to die, but at least he was going to die doing his job.

What happened next, he couldn’t really explain.

Just as he was about to end up as a snack for one of the beasties, the other—the one that was going to grab Dez—attacked its partner, tearing into the other with such ferocity that Bogey had to temporarily close his eyes, it was so gross. There were pieces of skin and stuff flying everywhere.

The one monster had torn apart that other in a matter of seconds.

Bogey squinted through one eye to see what was going down, and couldn’t believe his peepers.

The remaining monster was kneeling beside Dez, holding the moaning boy in its arms like somebody lovingly holding a puppy.

“Are you all right, Dez?” a voice that suddenly seemed very familiar asked, coming from the mouth of the fearsome beast.

Dez had stopped moaning and seemed to be coming around.

“I’m good,” Dez said, his eyes blinking away the hurt.

Bogey knew the voice coming from the monster . . . but how was it possible?

“Good thing I decided to tag along,” the monster said, and it tried to smile, too many teeth inside its mouth making it look awful.

It sounded like Dez’s . . .

“I’m glad you did too,” Dez said, reaching up to lovingly touch the side of the monster’s face.

“Thanks, Dad.”

8.
T
HE TURTLE GLARED MENACINGLY DOWN THE
barrels of the fearsome weapons.

“So you saved us only to shoot us?” Bram asked, stepping forward. “Doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense to me.”

“Hurrrmm,” Boffa gurgled from somewhere deep within his speckled throat. “The ways of the Terrapene are mysterious.”

“Murderous is more like it,” one of the Specter guards spat. He stared hard at the turtle, hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

Boffa lumbered forward, jabbing the guns at them, and Bram quickly stepped back, hands raised in surrender.

“Murderous?” the turtle bellowed. “Specter kind smashes the eggs of Terrapene young till there is only Boffa, and Boffa is called murderous?”

Bram watched the Terrapene’s thick fingers twitch upon the triggers of the twin weapons and held his breath.

The turtle extended his neck and hissed through his beaklike mouth. Then he lowered his weapons and stomped away, grumbling.

Bram turned to Lita. “Let me guess—another enemy of the Specter nearly brought to extinction.”

Lita lowered her eyes in shame. “The Terrapene were our oldest adversaries . . . and Boffa their most fearsome warrior. But even with his kind all dead, he continued to fight the war. Until my mother took control of the kingdom, when all signs of him disappeared and we thought him dead.”

“Wishful thoughts!” Boffa yelled over his shell.

“There has to be a reason why he saved us,” Bram said to his sister. “Did you hear me, Boffa?” he asked the Terrapene as he slowly approached. “Am I right? Is there a reason why you just didn’t let the Shriekhounds overrun us?”

The turtle spun around, glaring at Bram through dark brown eyes tinged with yellow. “Filthy beasts, the Shriekhounds are,” he growled. “Hate them just as much as murderous Specter.”

“You still could have let us die,” Bram stressed.

“More Shriekhound than Specter now . . . more Shriekhound to kill.”

The Terrapene’s arms disappeared inside the shell, returning without the weaponry.

“Queen is very sick,” Boffa said, pushing Bram out of the way to approach the stretcher.

The Specter guards drew their weapons, and the turtle stopped, his head bobbing as he sniffed the air.

“Will be dead soon,” he said. “Unless you go with Boffa.”

The Terrapene started back down the passage, stomping over the corpses of the Shriekhounds as he went.

“What do you mean unless we go with you?” Lita called after the beast.

Boffa stopped but did not turn around.

“Poison is killing queen . . . can smell it coming from her soft flesh. Boffa have medicine that maybe keep her live . . . maybe not.”

He started walking again.

“Only way to know is to come with Boffa.”

Lita watched the Terrapene for a moment, then looked at Bram.

“It’s a chance we didn’t have before,” he said.

The Specter guards looked less than enthused.

“It’s a trap,” one bellowed, hand still clutching his drawn sword.

“Why would one such as he show us mercy?” asked another. “We’re enemies to the soul.”

Bram said nothing more, allowing Lita to make up her mind and hoping that she would make the right choice.

“Follow the Terrapene,” she finally ordered. “If there’s even the slightest chance of keeping my mother, and our queen, alive, I will risk it.”

“But, Princess,” one of the soldiers began.

She silenced him with a look that said there would be no argument, and started to follow the Terrapene.

They followed Boffa out into the fresh air of the Specter world and into a heavily wooded area of a deep valley. The Terrapene was like a bulldozer, pushing his way through the thick forest, leaving a path of overturned earth and broken trees.

It seemed as though they had been climbing out of the valley forever.

Bram tried to help the Specter soldiers with their burden, but they refused, nearly pushing him out of the way as they struggled to carry the queen’s stretcher up the steady incline.

Lita moved up beside him and stopped for a moment, taking a drink from a canteen made from the mottled skin of some foreign beast. She offered it to Bram. “Stanis and Yosh have sworn a sacred oath to protect her no matter what, and this is part of that oath.”

“So that’s their names,” Bram said as he drank some water and handed the canteen back to his sister. “I only want to help.”

“It is not your place,” she answered, putting the water away and continuing with the trek.

Bram took a deep breath and turned around to see how far they had come. He gasped aloud, barely able to comprehend the sight of what lay in the distance behind him.

Down below, nestled in the bosom of the valley, was the decomposing body of a giant. Bram guessed that Ureichuras had been at least two hundred feet tall, and he had to wonder how the Specter could have defeated a race so huge. The remains were covered in a thick growth of moss and other vegetation.
A few more years and you won’t be able to tell that’s a body,
he thought.

“Abraham?” Lita called, interrupting his thoughts. He turned from the spectacular, yet disturbing sight and continued to climb, quickening his pace to catch up.

They marched on through the dense woods, the ground eventually growing more level, until they came to the edge of a flowing stream. It was nightfall, and Boffa informed them that their journey was complete for now.

The Terrapene moved toward an area of thick brush, pushing it aside to reveal the entrance to a large, underground burrow. He disappeared inside for a few moments, then reemerged.

“You will bring her inside,” Boffa ordered the Specter soldiers.

The group moved toward the Terrapene, but he held up a hand stopping them. “Only queen.”

Stanis and Yosh looked toward Lita, who stared at the turtle for a moment and then nodded, motioning for the soldiers to carry their burden into Boffa’s nest.

They watched as the faithful soldiers maneuvered the stretcher holding Queen Ligeia down under the ground. Then Lita dropped her heavy pack and began to set up camp.

“Do you trust them all down there together?” Bram asked, moving to help her gather up some kindling for a fire.

“They’ll be fine,” she replied as she knelt before the small pile of sticks. Picking up two stones, she struck them
together, creating a spark that lit a small flame. Carefully she blew on the flame, coaxing it into a nicely burning campfire.

Silently, they sat and watched the flames grow. Bram leaned back against the base of an ancient tree and immediately felt his body begin to shut down. He was exhausted and, to keep himself awake, he began to talk.

“Our lives are kind of similar.”

Lita threw some more wood on the fire and it blazed all the higher. “I’m not sure I follow,” she said.

“I was being groomed to carry on the mission of my father,” Bram explained. “As I’m sure you are being prepared to become the next queen.”

His sister stared quietly into the fire. “A task that I’m not at all ready for,” she finally said.

“I felt the exact same way,” Bram told her. “I still do really, but I guess I realized that there’s just no way around it. It’s something only I can do.”

“I wonder if I’m strong enough,” Lita said, still gazing into the blaze.

“You’ll be great.” Bram smiled warmly at her. He had known her for just a few hours, but already he felt a special bond.

She seemed embarrassed, refusing to look at him. But the potentially awkward moment was interrupted by a noise from the burrow. They looked over to see Stanis and Yosh emerge, followed by Boffa.