The Tome of Bill (Book 7): The Wicked Dead (18 page)

Sadly, all I could see were blurs of red ... quite a few of them.

Oh shit.

I felt around where I sat. Sure enough, my glasses had slipped off at some point during my little exercise in theater of the mind. I popped them back on and everything swam back into focus ... particularly ugly focus as I looked up to see a fat old lady clad in the red robes of a Templar brandishing a cross at me.

It was Sheila’s former
neighbor
, the one I had punched out rather unchivalrously when she’d tried to stop us from leaving her apartment building. The look on her face suggested she hadn’t forgotten.

That in itself wasn’t much of an issue. Hell, I might not have James’s or Alex’s powers, but I could sure as hell take out a pudgy geriatric bitch if the situation called for it. Sadly, she wasn’t alone.

Gone was Dave, and in his place stood at least half a dozen Templar warriors – most of them brandishing their holy fetishes, but two being somewhat more practical and wielding swords.

I put my hands up in a conciliatory gesture and slowly got to my feet. “Listen, guys, I don’t know what the issue here is, but we don’t want any trouble.” I turned toward Christy, noting her form had filled out considerably from her mental avatar’s state. She was still sitting on the floor, her eyes trying to take in the situation. I reached out a hand to help her up.

One of the Templar, a young and eager fellow – perhaps a bit too eager – sprang forward and slammed his metal cross down upon my knuckles. Fucking A! “Touch her not, filth. I command thee in the name of our Lord and savior!”

My hand wasn’t on fire, meaning Sir Lancelot’s faith wasn’t worth the breath he wasted on it. Even so, that still fucking hurt.

Do it
, a voice from deep within commanded.

“Huh?” I asked to nobody in particular. “What was that?”

It’s time
, Dr. Death repeated.
Kill them before they attack you ... before they hurt the witch
.

“That seems a little extreme.” I mean, sure, these guys were assholes, but that didn’t mean they needed to die because of it.

“Who is he talking to?” the young Templar asked.

The fat Templar stepped in front of him. “Be wary, my brothers. For surely he is receiving orders from his master ... Satan.”

She might as well have just walked into a DC Comics convention and pointed out the one guy wearing a t-shirt that read “Fuck Batman.” The Templar might have been cautiously holding back before, but now they took on a much more aggressive stance, converging upon my location.

It wasn’t just me in danger either. The second Christy tried to use her magic, they’d no doubt remember those dictates along the lines of not suffering witches to live. I couldn’t allow that.

We’ll make it quick, merciful
.

I nodded to myself. I’d closed my eyes to a situation that had been under control and came back out again to find myself smack dab in the middle of a shit storm. Sure, I stood a good chance of taking these clowns by myself, but it wasn’t a guarantee. I was trapped with no way out, save the lone door beyond a sea of red cloaks, and with little room to maneuver. There were also my friends to think about.

Your roommates. They were guarding the door. What happened to them?

He was right. What had these fuckers done to them?

I didn’t need a mirror to know my eyes had turned black as night. I could feel the slight prick on my bottom lips that said my fangs were descending. My claws were next and then it would continue.

“Let’s do this, partner.”

I’d been told to accept his presence. So I did. I opened myself up, willing myself to let him in, and felt a cold void of raw rage begin to seep into me.

When next I blinked, the room had taken on a decisively red tint.

* * *

I tensed my arms and realized my sleeves felt tight. This was it. Fear bubbled up in me as I felt the change begin. All of my defenses screamed out for me to stop what was happening. It was a learned response, little more than a subconscious version of Pavlov’s dog. I needed to push it down, repress it for once.

Yes, let it happen.

“That’s enough!”

The voice carried with it authority and determination. Everyone in the room turned toward it.

No!

I did too, the rage subsiding in me as quickly as it had risen. Hers was a voice I knew well, one that I often dreamt of ... and not just in the way Christy had seen a few minutes prior.

Well, okay, mostly in that way.

The Templar parted as Sheila stepped to the doorway. I found myself surprised to find her wearing regular clothes – half expecting to see her clad in her Templar armor, and not just because she looked hot in it.

“Really, guys? I told you to just guard the room.”

“The beast is not to be trusted,” Fatty spat.

“For the last time, he’s on our side. There’s a far greater evil to be dealt with.”

“Wait, far greater evil?” I asked as it hit me.

“Sorry. You know what I mean.”

“Apologize not to this thing,” one of the Templar, the faithless one who’d smacked my hand, said. Christ, these fuckers really needed to get laid. “You are far above it in the...”

“Thank you, Brother Thomas,” Sheila said curtly. Though she’d had nothing to do with them since the battle in Upstate New York, as far as I knew, they still seemed to venerate her words as that of an authority figure. Speaking of which...

“Um, what are these guys doing here?”

Ton o’ Templar spoke up. “You mean besides protecting this sweet child, heavy with babe as she is, from your voracious appetite?” She took a step toward Christy, who scrambled to her feet and away. “You need not fear, child.”

“I’m
not
your child.” Christy’s eyes flashed, and a purplish glow began to suffuse her body. “I know what you are. All Magi know the crimes the zealots have committed against our kind.”

Oh crap, here we go again.

If my presence had been a slap across the face to the Templar, learning that Christy was a witch was the accompanying kick to the nuts. Murmurs of prayer rose up in the room, and so too did their weapons.

“I said that’s enough,” Sheila said again, a glow erupting from her body – one that made Christy’s seem like a nightlight by comparison.

“You said nothing of a daughter of Lucifer being present.”

“And if you still think that’s how it works, then it shows you know nothing of us,” Christy retorted.

“Sister Bernadette,” Sheila said, stepping forward and putting a hand on the tubby Templar’s sloped shoulder. The glow from her spread to the old woman, and a look akin to rapture passed through her face. “These are my friends. Please trust my judgment in this.”

The look of pure joy at being touched by Sheila’s power – harmless to humans, but probably making the Templar think God himself was giving them a handjob – immediately fled Bernie’s face, seemingly replaced by a bad smell. “We will trust you, your Holiness. But know that we will not trust them.”

“That is all I can ask for,” Sheila replied, her voice remaining pleasant. “Everything is under control here. Please take the faithful upstairs and keep guard. I’ll join you shortly.”

Bernadette hesitated, throwing me and Christy the stink eye.

“Worry not, Sister,” Sheila continued. “I have nothing to fear. You know the damned cannot enthrall me.”

* * *

Sheila shut the thick door once her asshole buddies had passed beyond. Though it would keep them from eavesdropping, it still wasn’t enough to stop me from hearing them muttering as they walked away.

“She says she isn’t enthralled, but...”

“Have faith, brother; the Lord’s will shall prevail in the end.”

Their voices faded away to several cries of hallelujah as they reached the stairs. Fucking Bible thumpers.

“Damned, eh?” I asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Sorry. Sister Bernadette would only believe so much of what I tried telling her. I had to walk a fine line to get them to come along. Things almost got ugly as they were.”

“I have a feeling ugly’s a concept she’s quite intimate with.” The glares from the two ladies, both of them nuclear bombs to my firecracker, caused me to cease with the insults – true though they might be. “Why are they here?”

“I was kind of hoping they’d turn you down,” Christy said, causing my head to snap toward her.

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

“You know we need them,” Sheila replied, ignoring my outburst.

I stepped between them and held up my hands. “Okay, red light! Let’s back up just a step here. What the fuck are the Templar doing in this safe house and,” I turned toward Christy, “why do you know about this?”

“You do realize that while you’ve been off doing whatever it is you do, the rest of us have been planning, right?”

I spun toward Sheila, meeting her silver eyes with my own. “I mean, I figured you guys were talking about it, but...”

“But without you to lead the discussion, we’d just flounder about like fish out of water?”

“Well, not exactly.” Her eyes blared white for a moment, and I added, “Okay, maybe a little.”

“Seriously?” She threw up her hands and paced across the room. “Your entire plan was to march us up to Boston and attack them ... with just the six of us?”

“I...” Fuck! She had me there. “Fine. I’m more of an adjust-on-the-fly type of guy anyway.” I turned around and pointed a finger at Christy. “And you knew?”

“I live there too. Now you know.”

“And none of you said anything because...?”

“A couple of reasons,” Sheila said.

“Oh? Care to enlighten me?”

“For starters, we weren’t sure any of it would work. The Templar and I didn’t exactly part ways on the best of terms. An entire chapter was wiped out in Westchester, and then you had to go and punch Bernadette in the face while we were standing together.”

Ah yes, quite the pleasant memory. “Okay, and...”

“That was on me,” Christy said. “After you told me your plan, I thought it best to keep you in the dark on this. I didn’t think the extra stress would help while you were preparing yourself.”

“Oh, and waking up to a bunch of crosses about to be shoved up my ass wasn’t stressful?”

“Sorry about that,” Sheila said. “Bad timing. Took longer to gather them together than I thought. Believe it or not, they’ve been doing a lot of good in the city – fighting off monsters and protecting people where they can. A lot of them were out on the street when I made it to their sanctuary.”

“Took you long enough.”

“I also stopped by my old place for a few changes of clothes,” she admitted with a guilty grin.

“Fine. What’s done is done. I don’t like them much, but I won’t lie and say they won’t be useful. Lord knows – and yes, I will refrain from saying such things around them – but we could use the help.” That thought caused me to look around the room and remember the distinct lack of Dave. I quickly scanned the floor, looking for signs of dust. “Where is...”

“That one’s my bad too. I didn’t realize you were bringing other vampires. Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s been keeping secrets.”

“In all fairness, I wasn’t originally planning on bringing them along. It just sort of worked out that way.”

“Whatever the case, we found two strange vampires upstairs with your roommates and then a third standing over you both, holding an IV of blood that was attached to your arm.”

“You didn’t hurt them, did you?”

“It was close. The two upstairs started pointing at me and yelling stuff about holy avenging something or other.”

“Your sword. I told them it was a plus five Holy Avenger.”

“Uh, yeah. Well, either way, they got real lucky. I saw they were covered in blood and was...” She averted her gaze from mine. “I was afraid for the worst. But then they threw up their hands and surrendered.”

“You don’t fuck with a high level paladin,” I commented.

“Anyway, I have some more Templar upstairs guarding them all.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Things had already gone bad with Carl. I didn’t need shit escalating with the rest.

“Thank you. They’re friends ... weird though they might be.”

“And the blood?”

Thankfully, Christy was there to bail me out on that one. “A necessary evil. We wouldn’t have made it here without their help.” A bit of an exaggeration, but it sounded a whole lot better than what really happened.

That was all Sheila apparently needed, because she nodded somberly. “I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of that in the days ahead.” She smiled and turned back to me. “Sorry I wasn’t here to help, but I assume you went ahead with things anyway, even without precautions?”

I explained to her Dave’s presence with the bag of Ed’s blood. She nodded, a look of admiration upon her face. “Not bad. But more importantly, did it work?”

I opened my mouth, not entirely sure what I was going to say. I mean, I
thought
it worked. However, pointing out that we would have known for sure had she made her grand entrance just a few moments later didn’t seem particularly wise.

Thankfully, one of the Templar popped his head back in the door and spared me from having to sputter something about learning to sing Kumbaya with my inner self.

“Blessed one, come quick. A figure approaches from the night. She has the form of a harlot, but moves with the grace of one of
them
.”

His inflection toward me carried with it enough venom to down a rhino, but I didn’t care. The description he’d given was the important part and it pointed to only one person.

Sally was finally back.

I pushed my way past the Templar minion and headed upstairs. The last thing I needed was for Sally’s return to be interrupted by a bunch of asshats trying to turn her into a fried Twinkie with their crosses.

Sheila hurried to keep up. I wondered why she was suddenly so interested in Sally, but then when I reached the main floor, I realized it wasn’t Sally so much as me.

She’d done her part in spades. The group of Templar I’d met upon my rude awakening was just the tip of the iceberg. She’d gone all out. The place was packed with them, albeit it was hard to tell how many due to the multiple rooms that made up the main floor.