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Chapter 37

Vampires and Icks are fast, but I&039;d dueled their like before Like the apocryphal Loki, my previous opponents had learned that no matter how quick you are on your feet, you aren&039;t faster than thought

The spell I&039;d been holding ready lashed out before either of our opponents hadout from my outstretched hand to seize not the Ick, but, in a sudden flash of inspiration, I directed it at the va beside and a little behind it Clearly,to stand in the Devourer&039;s shadohen the hurt started flying

I cried out, "Forzare!" and le - directly in front of and beneath the feet of the Ick

If you have no weapons hich to fight the enemy, find a way to make your enemy be your weapon If you can pull it off, it

The va squeal and a crunchy-sounding splatter of vile fluids The collision tripped up the led with the va to the ground, its unnatural dru in fury at the entangleht be destroying

Susan adjusted almost instantly to what had happened, and closed on the sprawling Ick with incredible speed Her ar her club straight down onto its skull and driving its head down to rebound from the floor

The Ick took the hit like it was a love tap, slashing at Susan with its claws - but she had already bounded into the air, jerking her knees up to avoid the grabbing claws and flying clear over the Devourer to a roar of approval frooblins She landed in a baseball player&039;s slide and shot forward over the gore-srab the throat of the downed vampire as she did

The battered body came free of the Ick&039;s limbs,Susan&039;s slide and stopping her forward reen fla

The Ick whirled around as it staggered to its feet again, preparing to pursue her, when I lifted o," and haical focus Blue-white fire, blindingly bright against the rather diroup screaoblins The fire struck the Ick and gouged a chunk of black, rubbery flesh the size of a watermelon out of the massive muscles of its back Its head whipped back so sharply that the top of its head practically touched its own spine, and it lost its balance for another second or two, slipping on the gore the first vampire had provided as it turned toward me

I dimly took note of Susan as this happened The half-crushed, half-dis claws and fangs, putting up an insanely desperate, vicious fight in an atte on to its life

Susan took a hard blow to the side of the head, and when she turned back, her lip was bloodied, her teeth bared in a snarl, and the dark swirls and points of her tattoos began to spread over her face like black ink dripped upon water She dropped the iot both hands on the vath, thrust its head into the green fire

There was a bloody explosion as that fire devoured the vareater than any campfire&039;s, the te as hot as the sun As the varated with a howl of vaporized liquids, spattering tiny bits of bone like shrapnel and covering Susan and the dying va cloud

"Susan!" I shouted, and darted over to one side so that I wouldn&039;t be loosing blasts of fire blindly into that cloud if I h in one of its arms,a scorch h across its hip The dru rhythm by now, like the double bass drums of a speed-metal band The hits seemed only to make it more furious, and it shifted into a controlled forward rushof fire or else leaveclaws

But either the blow on the noggin or one of the blasts I&039;d unleashed had slowed the Ick down I sprinted for the angle on its approach, for the path that would let ot clear of its attack, beating the ainst the circle&039;s perimeter as it ca over s as I ran, atte to slow it even more I didn&039;t hit with more than a quarter of theainst the Erlking&039;s green fire in sizzling bursts of light The adrenaline ht and sound with a cold purity, and I suddenly sahere the Devourer eakest

Though it was hard to tell with its alienone side ever so slightly I darted in for a better look, nearly gotfist, and saw that the Ick&039;s leg ounded, low on the back of its thigh, where the black flesh isted and led Had it been ht it the result of a severe burn - as long as whatever had done the burning had been molten- had gotten to the Ick during its encounter with Thomas, with a wound that had threatened to cripple it That hy it had been forced to withdraw If it stayed and Mouse had ed another such strike, it would have been entirely iuy," I heard ot nowhere to run"

The part of ht the statement was utterly crazy Maybe stupid, too The Ick was still chasing me, after all If it hit me once with one of those enormous, clawed hands, it would liquefy the bones under whichever part of my body it hit (With the possible exception of my head I maintain that all evidence seems to point to the fact that sorades on )

I was scra away for all I orth, and I couldn&039;t keep up a pace like that forever I was scoring on the Ick,it evenit

It all ca it than I was at dishing it out? If so, then I was living on borrowed ti ah rate of interest

Before I could find out, the fight changed

The Ick h to hit ot out of the way in ti steps instead, and recovered my balance The Ick turned to follow, and Susan burst out of the cloud of greasy smoke the instant it turned its back

Her tattoos had flushed frorace and in perfect silence So when she gracefully, silently swung that steel table leg at the side of the Ick&039;s knee joint - on its unuard

There was a sharp, terrible crack, a sound that I would have associated only with falling tiunfire if I&039;d heard it somewhere else The steel bar smashed the Ick&039;s knee unnaturally inward, until it rees

It bellowed in agony and one arh it had been off balance, startled, and falling when it did so, it still knocked her ten feet backward and to the ground Her club bounced out of her hand with a chi, into the circling flareen fires sliced off half the table leg as neatly as any high-temperature torch possibly could have done The colors of the flame briefly striated with tendrils of amber, violet, and coppery red The severed end rolled free of the fire, and its edge was glohite-hot

I noticed it in the periphery of round with her back twisted at an ile

The Ick lurched toward me as I stood there, frozen in shock for the briefest of instants It was h time for the Devourer to close, rake at me with its claws, and bat me twenty feet across the circle, all at the saain, the spells on my coat withstood the brute power of the Ick&039;s claws, but this hadn&039;t been a glancing blow, or incidental dae collected when it had tripped over ehammer slam of the kind that had probably tossed the Blue Beetle onto Thomas&039;s sports car du jour It was exactly what I had dreaded, and as round, a kind of resolved caloblin excitement

I was a dead man Simple as that The only question hether or not I would survive long enough to feel the pain that the shock of i And, of course, where to ais slowed my tumble and I wound up on my back with my hips twisted to one side as the Ick threw back its head and let out a burbling, teakettle scream Its heart pounded like surreal thunder, and my body suddenly felt aith cold, as if I&039;d landed in a pool of icy water The Ick ca in its movements now It howled and lifted both arms above its head, ready to smash them down onto my skull I didn&039;t have much time to use my death curse, said the little sane voice in my head

And then another voice in my head, one far louder and ie whirled through es of her death - or worse - at Arianna&039;s hands If I died here, there would be no one to take her out of darkness

I had to try

I thrust both fists at the Ick&039;s least injured leg and let go with every energy ring I had left

I guess fro fu-type double fist strikes, though the only thinga new round of bruises and little scars The energy released fro so hard that it swept out parallel to the floor The Ick toppled

I rolled desperately, and escaped being crushed by its bulk by a hairbreadth It landed in whistling agony

And I suddenly saay to kill it that would never have been visible toup

I raised the blasting rod to point at the ceiling above, deeply shadowed but still barely visible It was a natural cavern roof The floor &039;s hall, but stalactites the size of city buses hung frorim teeth I checked to be sure that Susan was on the far side of the circle, as far away as possible fro down

Then I hurledthat was al I had left into it

Blue-white fire screa rod, so intense that the rune-carved i splinters It hit the far- above stalactite with a thunderous concussion Beside me, the Ick rose up and reached for my skull with one enormous hand

I threw up my hands, hissed, "Aparturum," and, with the last of &039;s hall and theround and parallel to the floor, oriented so that its entry point was on its upper side Then I curled up into a fetal position beneath that opening and tried to cover my head with my arms

Tons and tons of stone turace The Devourer&039;s heartbeat redoubled its pace Then there was an incredible noise, and the whole world was blotted away

I lay there onto move Stone fell for a while,rocks slowly died away, like the pops from a pan of popcorn just before it starts to burn Only, you know, rockier

Only then did I allow myself to lift my head and look around

I lay in a perfectly circular four-foot-across tomb that was maybe five feet deep The sides of the toh I could see from all the cracks and crevices that they werefro as a car

Above htly All the stone that would have fallen on h the open Way and back into the material world

I took a deep breath and closed it again I hoped that no one was hanging around wherever it was that Way emptied out Maybe in the FBI cafeteria? No way to know, except to go through and look I didn&039;t want to face the collateral da like that

My sane brain pointed out that there was every chance that eren&039;t talking about falling stones at all As matter from the spirit world, they would transform to simple ectoplasy was provided in order to preserve their solidity I certainly hadn&039;t been trying to puy into the stones as they hit the Way So odds were that I just dumped several dozen tons of sli - and slirossly reduce the chances of inflicting injuries on some hapless FBI staffer

I decided that my sanity and I could live with that

I closed the Way with a wave of my hand and an effort of will, and slowly stood up As I did, I realized that I felt a bit creaky, and that I was shaking with fatigue But what I didn&039;t feel waspain

I tried to dust ood look at ans I should be bleeding all over the place

But as far as I could tell, I didn&039;t even have whiplash

Was that Mab&039;s power, running through me, wrapped around me? I didn&039;t have any other explanation for it Hell, when Susan and I had run froet winded first, while I felt noout to mythis fight

I thought I should probably feel disturbed by the sudden increase in iven what I&039;d had to pay for the but a certain sense of satisfaction I would need every advantage I could get when I went to take Maggie away froreen fire of the fighting circle began to die away, and as it did the goblins of the hall erupted into an earsplitting, spine-chilling sy howls

I climbed out of the hole, then over and around a couple of dump trucks&039; worth of rubble, and hurried over to Susan&039;s side on the opposite end of the ring

She lay limp and still There were small cuts and bruises all over her Her leather pants had hundreds of little holes in theuessed Her spine was bent and twisted I couldn&039;t tell how bad it was I meanSusan had always been fairly limber, and I had more reason to know than most With her entire body limp like that, it was hard to say

She was breathing, and her tattoos were still there, now bright scarlet Her pulse was far too slow, and I wasn&039;t sure it was steady I leaned down and peeled back one eyelid

Her eyes were black, all the way through

I lickedindicator the Fellowship used As Susan&039;s vaained more influence over her actions, the tattoos appeared, solid black at first, but lightening to bright red as the vaained more control Susan wasn&039;t conscious, but if she had been, she would have been insane with bloodlust She&039;d nearly killed me the last time it had happened

It was sort of what had started this whole mess, in fact

Her body was covered in injuries of various sizes, and I thought I kneas happening It was instinctively drawing upon the vaed flesh - but as she had not provided that nature with sustenance, it could offer her only limited assistance

She needed blood

But if she got it, woke up, and decided that she just had to haveIt caught for a moment, and I nearly panicked

Then I shook my head, took my penknife from my duster&039;s pocket, and opened a cut in my left palm, in an area where the old burn scars were thickest, and which still didn&039;t have a lot of sensitivity

I cupped my hand while I bled into my palm Then, very carefully, I reached down and tipped my palm to carefully spill a few drops into Susan&039;s ht I&039;d just run a current of electricity through her body She quivered, went rigid, and then arched her back into a bow Strange popping sounds caasped, then stared blindly, trying to findbaby finds its meals I held my hand over her mouth and let the blood trickle in slowly

She surged in languidthe blood as if it were chocolate, a ood sex, and a new car all rolled into one Twomotion later, her eyes suddenly focused on me and then narrowed She snatched at ht fist into her face

I didn&039;t pull the punch, either If her darker nature was allowed to continue, it would destroy her, killing ainst the ground, and she blinked her eyes, stunned

I stood up, took a few steps back, and stuffedshocky My whole ar back until I was sure I could shield in tinized it when Susan checked back in Her breathing slowed, beco controlled and steady It took her four or five minutes of focus to push her darker self away from control, but eventually she did She sat up slowly She licked at her bloodstained lips and shuddered in slow ecstasy for a second before dashing her sleeve across herherself to her feet She looked around wildly, a terrible dread in her eyes - until she spotted me

She stared at me for a moment, and then closed her eyes She whispered, "Thank God"

I nodded to her and beckoned for her to stand at my side

I waited until she reached

Off to one side, the members of the Red Court remained where they had been - save that Esteban and Esoblins&039; nets as well I had apparently been too intent on Susan to hear the sound of any struggle in the afteruess what had happened As soon as the Ick had begun to falter, they h, they hadn&039;t had the advantage of showing up in a totally unexpected place, with the goblins intent upon their oblins had taken theun to flee Both of the Eebs were staring at Susan andfaces

The Erlking looked at the captured vaht," he said, his deep voice resonant

We both bowed our heads slightly to hiers, once It echoed like the report of a firearm

Screams went up from the entire helpless Red Court crew as several hundred violence-aoblins fell on them in a wave I watched for a moment in sickened fascination, but turned away

I hate the Red Court But there are li&039;s kin had none

"What about the Red King?" I asked hileamed "His Majesty&039;s folk failed to prove their peaceful intentions The trial established their deception to the satisfaction of law and custoin a war over this e And his people will "

Beneath the screams of the Red Court - Esed chuckle ran through the hall The sound danced with its own echoes It was like listening to the official sound track of Hell A goblin wearing thick leather gloves appeared, holding as left of Susan&039;s club as if it were red-hot The touch of iron and its alloys is an agony to the creatures of Faerie Susan accepted the steel caloblin

"I presuo?"

"If I did not release you now," the Erlking said, his tone al you ulp wasn&039;t audible

The Lord of the Hunt turned and gestured idly with one hand, and a Way shiht that had let us see began to darken rapidly "May you enjoy good hunting of your own, Sir Knight, lady huntress Please convey s to the Winter Queen"

My sane brain fell asleep at the switch, and I said, "I will It was a pleasure, Erl"

Maybe he didn&039;t get it He just tilted his head slightly, the way a dog does at a new sound

We all bowed to one another politely, and Susan and I stepped through the Way, careful not to take our eyes off of our host, until the world shione

It was replaced with an enor that appeared to be filled froht possibly need to shoot, catch, find, stalk, hook, clean, skin, cook, and eat prettythat ran, slithered, hopped, or swa around in confusion

"Heh," I said "This is the Bass Pro in Bolingbrook, I think Makes sense, I guess"

"I didn&039;t mean that," she said, and pointed "Look"

I followed her gaze to a large clock on the far wall of the big store

It said that the time was currently nine thirty pm

Thirty minutes after our departure time