The Reluctant Renfield, page 14
Bitsy looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
Maybe I had. Alex was too busy tangling with his pig to save me reckless rear. The creature knew how to use its tusks and had parried Alex’s first few thrusts.
Great. I was about to face down a huge feral animal from another plane of existence that knew how to sword fight with its monster tusk-teeth.
It had enough with the pawing and charged.
I better not have been hallucinating, because I needed a helping hand. I needed it now.
That presence? It blew a raspberry. In my head. It tickled like crazy.
“Tangwystl,” I called.
As if nothing had changed in the past months—as if she’d been conscious, present, and unharmed this entire time—she appeared in my hand.
Just in time to avert a tusk to my gut.
Never had I been so glad to hear the bloodthirsty sound of Tangwystl’s giggling laugh. Fighting was her favorite pastime, blood her favorite meal.
“Sharp, I need really, really sharp.”
Seemed a good choice to go with a magically fine edge as I watched the pig shake its head and spin to make another pass. It hadn’t expected to meet any resistance.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Sharpest sharp. Demon pig dead. No head.
As the pig tried to gore me, I parried and thrust, spun in a circle and came back again. It was me, but also Tangwystl, but sort of both of us together. A little different than before maybe? But whatever we were doing, it was working. My feet were moving, the pig’s favorite target (my stomach) still ungored, and I was feeling good.
After several clashes with the pig’s monstrous tusks, I saw my in. Or Tangwystl did? She hummed as I slit its throat.
She seemed a little disappointed I hadn’t taken off the head entirely, but then busied herself slurping pig blood as I held the blade to its bloody neck.
Demon pig yum.
More slurping and smacking followed.
Had she always been so greedy with blood? Actually, yes. But she hadn’t reveled so obviously in its consumption before.
I convinced her she’d had enough—for now—by promising more to come, and then returned to Alex’s side.
In the time it had taken Tangwystl and me to dispatch our adversary, Alex had beheaded one pig and slit the throat of another.
He eyed the window to the left of the cabin’s door, where at least two of the creatures had emerged. Bitsy was standing at the cabin’s corner near the window, hammer raised, waiting.
“What were those?” I asked with my eyes trained on the other window.
“Low-level demons. I’ve never seen them in their natural physical form, but I recognized the feel of them. Stay here. I need to check that there aren’t any other points of entry for them.”
I blinked at him, confused.
“Other windows,” he explained, then squeezed my arm. “On the other sides of the cabin.”
“Right.”
He jogged away, sword still in hand.
My eyes had acclimated to the dark as we’d driven around hunting the cabin with no headlights, but with the glow from the cabin windows I’d lost that advantage.
I could see the area around the cabin fine. It was illuminated by the magical glow pouring from the windows. But beyond that? If something had escaped into the wooded area, it could easily circle around behind us and attack.
“Demon pigs?” Bitsy whispered-yelled. She looked freaked. Her eyes were huge. “That’s so wrong. I used to like bacon.”
I hummed my agreement, because I used to like bacon, too. “Tangwystl says they taste great, but she and I don’t have compatible diets. Why only three?”
Bitsy followed my logic. Was thinking it as well, given her continued vigilance near the window. “Don’t know. I thought Alex said whatever could feel the bridge would be attracted to cross over. And it’s hard to miss, at least on our end.”
The vibration from before, it was there, but more white noise than raging bass. I’d blocked it out, still was blocking it out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tangwystl were responsible. She’d once shielded me from the debilitating shriek of a demon, so it seemed she was the likely source.
I lifted the sword and gave her a kiss.
Pfft. Wet lips, gross.
I ignored her. She loved it.
And speaking of weapons… I eyed Bitsy’s hammer, still held high, waiting to drop on whatever emerged from the window. “I thought vamps liked to rip throats with their razor-sharp fangs.”
Not that mine were sharp. I could barely pierce gelatin, let alone flesh.
“I’m cautious about what I eat these days.” She looked at the shiny sword in my hand—because Tangwystl didn’t do bloodstains, that stuff was for eating—and said, “You know, I don’t actually blame you. I know you saved my life. Or your blood did, anyway.”
Now I was the wide-eyed one. “Ah, thanks.”
Alex returned before we could sing Kumbaya. Thank goodness. That was a lot of getting along and not sniping for us. “No other windows or doors. I scouted around the exterior for signs that Ellis fled when we arrived. His car is still here.”
“He has to be inside,” I concluded.
“Too bad we can’t see inside the possessed house’s window eyes.”
I frowned at Bitsy. What was her deal with the cabin? It was creepy, but not nearly as scary as those pig things.
“Too much magic,” Alex replied, as if Bitsy hadn’t spouted any nonsense about house eyes. “You two guard the windows, and I’ll head in to deal with Ellis.”
Bitsy and I both laughed. Loudly.
Alex looked heavenward. “Didn’t think that would work.”
Gaze flicking between the window and Alex, Bitsy said, “I’m so scared of this cabin I’m about to pee myself—and I don’t even pee any more—but I’m still not letting you go in alone.”
Not a time for warm fuzzies, I told my silly squishy heart. So she was brave and admitted I saved her life. She was still Bitsy.
I cleared my throat. “Stay. Guard the window. I’ve got Alex’s back.”
I also didn’t want to add to an already volatile situation by bringing Bitsy into the mix. Her number one priority was to smash Ellis’s head in, not deal with the interdimensional crisis that was unfolding. Or was that inter-plane-of-existence crisis?
Bitsy saved me from parsing that puzzle when she agreed. “You’ve got the sword, so maybe not a terrible idea.” Her features assumed a grim, determined expression. “I’ve got this.”
And there went my heart getting all squishy again.
Stab baddies. Demon blood gooooood.
And back to practicalities. My sword was going to be addicted to demon blood before this was over.
Ellis had three spectrals on his side, his triumvirate. He also had the backing of any other creature who ventured across the bridge.
More backup would have been great, but we needed someone to catch whatever made its way past us.
And we could do this.
Tangwystl, Alex, and I had it under control.
17
NONE SHALL PASS
Control?
I thought the three of us had things under control?
There was no controlling this.
Alex opened the cabin door, no whispering required, and stepped inside—onto a bridge.
An actual bridge. One that was stone and looked like it could have been around since medieval days.
A massive, fifty-foot stone bridge inside a cabin. Sure. Why not?
Unlike modern bridges, there were no barriers to keep one from falling off it. And on either side was a huge drop-off. There was no water below, just inky darkness.
“Stay in the middle. Don’t look over the side,” Alex instructed as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me toward the center.
Without realizing it, I’d inched perilously close to the edge.
Mental note: do not stare into the super-creepy magical abyss.
Once I was firmly planted next to Alex, I saw…what?
I blinked.
What was I seeing?
Ellis. No surprise there.
He was at the end of the bridge, an impossible fifty feet away. But then, the bridge didn’t fit inside the cabin, rather the cabin only existed on one side of the bridge, so it wasn’t impossible at all—just magic. I glanced behind me to see that the cabin door had disappeared but there was still a cabin wall and one open window.
Whatever. The physics were freaky. Magic made weird things happen. Yada-ya. That wasn’t the insanity that I cared about.
I turned back to the spectral end of the bridge. What was happening there was just…mind-blowing.
An angry Ellis was screaming at my Great-Auntie Lula who was standing guard with a giant two-handed sword in front of the bridge.
“None shall pass!” she screamed.
What was happening?
Apparently I asked that question out loud, because Alex said, “Your aunt is kicking spectral ass.”
I stared as a huge pig approached the bridge. She cut it in half.
Right in half.
Like it was butter.
“Great-Auntie Lula is guarding the bridge.”
“Yes. Yes, she is.” There was a smile in his voice.
She’d been absent from my life for several months. I’d had no sense of her. I hadn’t even glimpsed her when I’d accidentally overdone it with the coffee that one night when Alex had been out of town a month or so ago and I’d stayed up extra late watching A Discovery of Witches.
I thought her ghostly self had found closure, that she’d moved on. I wasn’t sure where, just that ghosts didn’t always stay ghosts. I figured she’d moved to the next stage of her life, whatever that was.
But, no. She hadn’t moved on.
She’d been outfitting herself with a sword more suitable to Wembley in his Viking days than my dead hippie great-aunt, and apparently learning how to use it if her current actions were anything to go by.
She’d cut her hair. Gone was the bun, replaced by a sleek bob.
No Doc Martens. No broom skirt.
She’d replaced her former attire with leather pants and chain mail.
What had happened in the last few months?
Several creatures, not pigs, were flying at her in a concerted effort to overtake her and gain access to the bridge. They looked like flying horses with grotesque, human-ish heads.
She felled one and injured another, but a third landed just shy of the bridge and managed to rush her. It just barely made it to the bridge.
“Stand back,” Alex said.
I almost argued, but then realized that there wasn’t room for both of us to fight side by side.
While Alex avoided flying hooves and huge beating wings, my heart was in my throat. But then he proceeded to deliver small cuts to the animal’s hide. Even when he had an opening, he didn’t try to maim or kill it.
With each cut, he drove it farther back down the bridge.
I followed behind, keeping enough distance to allow for Alex’s much faster reflexes should he need room to maneuver.
Either he was planning to use this creature to push Ellis the final few feet off the bridge to the other side, or he didn’t want to kill it.
Either way, we were getting closer to Ellis and to Great-Auntie Lula.
He was screaming at her, threatening to send vengeful demons after her. Talking about the mutilation his allies would inflict on her body.
I saw red.
Mutilate my great-aunt? I didn’t think so.
“Wait.” One whispered word from Alex and the haze dissipated.
He almost had the winged creature backed up to Ellis—who was so caught in his rage with my great-aunt that he didn’t clock the massive creature heading toward him.
Ellis had given the human-headed horse creature room to pass earlier, but now he stood firmly in the middle of the bridge.
He was still yelling threats at Great-Auntie Lula, who was mostly ignoring them.
In the midst of his yelling, the winged horse scrambling away from the bite of Alex’s blade, and another coordinated onslaught of a trio of pigs, chaos erupted.
There were hooves and tusks and swords. One pig fell to my great-aunt’s blade; the winged horse creature finally fought free and turned tail to thunder away, off the bridge and back to its spectral home.
The width of the bridge was narrow. There were too many bodies. I was too close to the edge.
Don’t look.
I thought the warning was in my head.
I looked anyway.
Suddenly I was there, at the edge, teetering, tipping…
A gloved hand yanked me back to safety.
“Great-Auntie Lula!”
She frowned. “Don’t look.” Then she shoved me toward the middle of the bridge and ran for the single pig that had worked its way free of the chaotic tussle.
It was making a run for the window at the other end of the bridge.
There was no time to tell her that we’d left someone on the other side to guard against such an occurrence. Just as well, because I wasn’t sure Bitsy’s preternatural speed and strength and a single hammer would be enough against a demon pig.
In the second I’d taken to watch Great-Auntie Lula’s flight down the bridge, events had taken a turn.
A nasty, ugly turn.
Alex and Ellis remained the lone combatants. Two pig carcasses lay at their feet, the third likely lost to the abyss.
Alex’s sword was gone.
Ellis had never been armed.
The two men grappled, arms locked. I could feel the magic rolling off them in waves.
Ellis gasped for breath. I knew what that meant. Alex was stealing the air from his lungs.
Alex had lost all color, his skin a pasty white. I didn’t know what Ellis was doing to him other than hurting him. Causing him pain.
I didn’t think. I tightened my grip on Tangwystl, lifted her blade, and—
“Stop!” a voice shrieked.
A woman.
Tangwystl whined with disappointment as I did exactly that. I mentally shushed her and she obeyed.
The woman who’d yelled stood on the spectral side of the bridge. She made no move to come closer.
She was blonde, petite, pretty in a wholesome, round-cheeked way.
Melissa Ann Waring Jones.
Her ghost, not the woman herself, of course.
“I will kill him.” My voice was shockingly calm as I addressed the one person who could end this all.
She approached the bridge slowly, her eyes never leaving her husband. “Stop,” she repeated.
I realized, that word had never been for me.
“Please, Ellis. Just stop.” She’d reached the bridge, but she went no farther.
Ellis couldn’t speak. If he weren’t a wizard, there was no chance he’d even be conscious at this point. Even he, with all his wizardly magic, couldn’t manage words without air.
But he didn’t need words. She read the desperate plea in his eyes.
“No. I won’t cross that bridge.”
Tears ran down his face. One after another.
He fell to his knees as Alex released both his physical and magical hold on him.
Ellis lay on the bridge he’d created with magic and blood. The bridge he’d made to bring his wife home. He lay on it, and he wept.
Alex was breathing hard, but his color was returning and he seemed to have suffered no permanent harm.
We watched as a man who’d loved and lost his wife suffered that loss all over again.
“Come to me,” she said. She’d knelt at the base of the bridge and watched her husband fall apart. She had to know what he’d done. She was a ghost. She could see into our world, even if she couldn’t physically manifest in it. And yet, here she was, her voice gentle and forgiving, telling him she’d welcome him. All he had to do was cross that bridge.
“I can’t. It only works one way.”
A fact that Alex hadn’t known when he’d come up with our only solution to close the bridge without harming our world.
His wife didn’t care about our worldly woes. She was focused solely on her husband. “I won’t return to that world. I can’t. Not after what you’ve done. Not with what’s waiting for you there.”
Smart woman. She had been watching, and she knew retribution was waiting for Ellis here in this world.
Seconds passed. Minutes.
Ellis stood and turned his back on his wife.
I couldn’t believe he was just going to leave her. After everything he’d done to be with her, to just—
“Kill me.” He was looking at Alex. He was begging Alex. “It’s my only chance to cross the bridge to her. Kill me.”
Wickedly fast, quicker even than the swiftest of wizards, I swung my blade.
Tangwystl took his head. Quietly, and for once with no joy.
He was standing, begging for his life to end, and then he was gone.
Alex and I watched as his physical body crumpled to the ground and his ghostly one joined his wife on the other side of the bridge.
Then the stone under our feet started to crumble.
We ran.
18
UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES
Alex and I crawled through the window about half a second before there was no window at all. I could feel it give under my hands even as I hoisted myself through.
I lay on the ground for several seconds, Alex’s tall, leanly muscular frame on top of me. I didn’t know about Alex, but I was catching my breath while simultaneously thanking the gods of broken vampires that I’d had a burst of speed at the end.
“Are they alive?”
“Definitely, but maybe they’re injured.”
The first was Bitsy, the second…my Great-Auntie Lula.
Alex finally rolled over, taking me with him when the peanut gallery’s whispers escalated to comments about checking for a pulse and looking for gaping wounds.
“We’re fine,” I announced from atop my boyfriend, scanning the area for my favorite living sword. I’d thrown her through the window right before I’d gone through myself.
