A Little Rhine Must Fall (29 page)

Annabeth stood and shifted faster than I would have believed possible. One moment she was a small-boned woman, standing naked and confident in the middle of carnage, her hands still dripping with the blood of the man she had loved. The next, a giant skunk ape form rippled over her body and before the stench had time to reach my nose she had grabbed the vampire nearest her and ripped off his head.

The blood splattered my face as she turned in a fluid moment and plucked the arms off the next vampire, like she was stripping twigs off a tree. Cecily sprang into action as well. A blur of movement, she wrenched the Sword of Justice from Matthew’s hand and neatly decapitated one of the two vampires who had been restraining her. A huge wolf took down the remaining one.

I felt hands grab my arm and Matthew yanked my body up in front of him like a shield. The armless vampire was screaming and screaming and I found myself wishing that someone would just shut him up. Cecily must have had the same thought for she buried her vampire fangs into his soft throat and the screams were replaced with gurgles and then silence.

All of this happened far faster than it takes to tell. The three witches stood frozen in shock until Cecily looked up, still grasping the quivering, armless body and said, “Run.” They turned and fled, sped on by another howl of rage from Annabeth.

She and Cecily turned on Matthew.

“Stay back!” he cried. “Any closer and she dies!”

“Let her go, Matthew,” Cecily wheezed. “It’s over.”

“Stay back!” he warned again.

She took a step closer and his hands dug deeper into my arms.

“I
will
kill her!” he yelled, confidence gone and bargaining for his life.

“Let her go and you can leave,” Cecily promised.

“No!” I managed to get out in a harsh whisper.

“Piper,” Cecily held up a hand to still me. “You’re life is more important than revenge.”

“Tell that to Mark.” The tears continued to course down my face.

“I’m taking her with me,” Matthew announced and began to back away.

“Think carefully, Matthew,” Cecily advised, with every step her breathing was becoming more normal as the hole in her chest began to close. “You can still get out of this alive.”

“I
am
thinking,” he replied. “I’m thinking I take this one with me as a hostage.”

“Matthew—” she started to say when we were tackled from the side.

I was knocked to the ground, still held by Matthew and we rolled as our attacker struggled to free me from his grip. Finally I was wrenched free by Cecily and could see that alien/Karen had launched herself at Matthew and they were locked in combat. It was over quickly.

He latched on to her throat and blue blood spouted out into his mouth. Within a heartbeat he leaped back, screaming, gargling, and pawing at his mouth, trying to wipe the alien blood away. It was eating at his skin and as he frantically rubbed at his face he was tearing away his lips revealing white bone and teeth beneath.

I shook free of Cecily’s protective grasp and pulled out the stake she had give me so many months ago, that I now kept strapped to my leg. Matthew had fallen to his knees keening and retching and he looked up as I took two steps to close the distance and raised the stake over my head.

“This time I
will
finish the job,” I promised him and plunged the stake into his heart.

I knelt there, shaken by sobs, still grasping the wooden shaft with both hands. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to Cecily standing over me.

“Give me the sword,” I croaked.

“You don’t have to do this, Piper,” she said.

“Yes. I do.”

When it was done, I carefully wiped the blade on a section of my pants that had managed to stay clean during the fighting and handed it back to Cecily. Then, not looking at Mark’s body, I crouched by the alien who had crawled over to the wall and propped herself up. Blue blood still poured out of her neck and her breathing was labored.

“Why did you do that?” I whispered.

She looked up at me, no emotion visible on her face. “You said there would be no more cake.”

I let out a harsh laugh. “Seriously? You did this for cake?”

“I like cake,” she explained.

I wiped tears away from my eyes and sniffed. “There still won’t be any cake,” I told her. “You know that, right? I mean, thank you for saving my life and all that, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that your people are going to enslave Earth.”

“I know,” she said, sinking down a little further. “I have been thinking about that as well.”

“You have?” I squashed the small seed of hope that tried to bloom in my heart. Alien attack or no, Mark was gone. There was no hope for me.

“Yes. I regret my decision to send the message for my people to come here.” She looked at me with childlike innocence. “I do not wish there to be a world with no cake.”

I tried to laugh again but what came out was a sob.

“Shh,” I told her. “You need to rest. We’ll try to help you.” I tried to stand up on shaky legs, but she grabbed my arm, her hand slippery with blood.

“Wait, Piper.”

“What? You need medical attention.”

“There is a way,” she told me, and then in a burst of information that went straight from her brain to mine, she showed me.

I gasped in shock, hope once more bursting forth in a blaze that seemed to set my nerve endings on fire. She nodded once at me and then her eyes rolled back in her head as she sank down the wall into death.

Chapter Twenty-Nine:

Tick …

I lurched to my feet, the alien’s limp hand leaving a blue trail down my arm.

“Annabeth!” I yelled. It came out like a squeak. I cleared my throat to try again.

Cecily tried to hug me. “I’m so sorry, Piper.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I brushed her off. “Annabeth!”

She lumbered over and I tried to wave my hand in front of my nose to dissipate the smell.

She huffed loudly twice then looked pointedly at the dead body of the alien. Cecily followed her stare and gasped. “Karen is dead.” She looked up at the moon in fear, waiting for the explosion.

I rolled my eyes. So little time and so much to explain. I’d have to stick to the essentials.

“Yes. Annabeth, I need those witches back.”

“Piper,” Cecily said in sorrow, “it’s over.”

“No, it’s not!” I cried. I pointed to the alien’s body. “She gave us more time, but it still might not be enough, so shut up and listen.” I turned to Annabeth. “I need those witches.”

She growled and I felt a warm, furry body twine between my legs.
:She wants to know if you need
all
of them back, and, if so, do you need them alive:

“Thanks for showing up,” I greeted Bastet sarcastically. Then, to Annabeth, “I need one of them back, alive.”

She lumbered off, looking slow and awkward but actually eating up the ground with her huge stride.

Cecily tried to sit me down. “Piper, Mark is dead. You can’t bring him back. And even if you could,” she looked at the blue smear on my arm. “Karen is dead. Her ship is going to explode. We’re
all
dead. We just don’t know it yet.”

I shook free of her again. “I have a plan. I need those witches.”

Cecily cocked her head to one side. “I will happily strangle the witches with their own intestines if that would make you happy.”

“What is it with you and intestines?” I asked her, scanning the quad for Annabeth’s return. “I need their help.”

I heard her whisper to Bastet. “I think the shock has affected her brain. Should we make her lie down?”

There was so much information swirling in my head, I couldn’t put it into words. My head felt like it was going to burst. It was over maximum capacity and I knew I probably looked and sounded like a crazy person. I
felt
like a crazy person, but this was the only shot we would have at surviving.

“Piper?” Cecily asked carefully, like she expected me to start frothing at the mouth. “I think you should let me clean you off and then go lie down.”

“I - you - Agh!” I said intelligently. “Bastet!”

:Yes?:

“This is it. This is what you’ve been waiting for.”

She snapped up to attention.
:Really?:

“Really.”

“What are you talking about?” Cecily asked, irritated.

:The Oracle’s prophecy. Piper is getting ready to save the world:
Her eyes shone in the dark.
:This should be interesting:

We heard the yelling before we saw Annabeth returning, dragging one of the witches by his hair. She threw him down at my feet and when he tried to run she stomped hard on his leg. He went down like a bowling pin, screaming and holding his knee.

“Shut up,” I commanded. It took all of my concentration to use the Voice and still hold on to the information I needed in my brain.

There was silence.

“I need to get to the moon,” I told the witch. “Now.”

:We
knew
it!:
Bastet purred. I shot her a death glare and she ducked her head in embarrassment.

“Piper!” Cecily begged. “It’s too late! That ship is going to explode. Just go be with your kids!”

I spared a sliver of attention for her. “We have two hours,” I told her and then refocused on the witch.

She wasn’t done. “Even if you had two days, Piper! It’s not going to make a difference!”

“The moon,” I told the witch. “Now.”

“I can’t get you to the moon!” he yelled. “How am I supposed to get you to the moon? It takes a whole coven to open a Zipline to the moon!”

I held my head, trying to keep my brain from popping out of my ears. “Cecily?” I asked her. “Trust me?”

She looked at me long and hard; then she sighed and gave a quick, sharp nod. Her eyes went vampire black and she crouched down so that she was nose to nose with the witch. “You see that man over there?” she asked, pointing at Mark’s body.

The witch glanced over quickly, but his gaze was pulled back magnetically to Cecily’s long, sharp canines. He nodded fearfully.

“He was my friend,” Cecily said softly, her voice sending chills down my spine. “Now, you have two choices. You can get this woman to the moon. Or I can rip you to shreds. Please,” she smiled like a shark, “choose the second option.”

“I can’t get you to moon by myself!” the man cried, trying to scoot away on his rear end.

“Good choice,” Cecily smiled and made a fake lunge for him.

“No! No! No!” he screamed. “I know a way! I know a way!”

Cecily pulled back and looked disappointed.

“If you can get us to Orlando, I know where a coven is meeting. We were supposed to report back to them after we finished this job.”

Cecily stood. “Orlando it is.” She brushed her hands off. “I’ll get the car.” She yanked the witch up to his feet. “You’re with me.”

“We’ll have to drive the whole way,” he said, “The WAND has shut down all Zipline traffic.”

“Then we’d better get going,” Cecily snarled, half-dragging him behind her.

:We call shotgun:
Bastet said and loped after her.

I stood there in the middle of the quad and stared at the carnage. It was mind numbing in its horror. Someone came and stood next to me.

“It’s always bad after a fight.” It was the remaining were.

“Even when you win?” I croaked.

“Especially when you win.”

I touched his arm and concentrated hard on getting out my words in the correct order. “Please. Stay here and watch.”

He gave me a keen look. “The ape and I will protect your family,” he said. “I’ll even promise to try and keep your motherin-law safe.”

I laughed and he cracked a grin.

“Come on, monkey,” he called to Annabeth and laughed aloud when she growled at him. Werewolves are not exactly the timid type.

I wanted so badly to follow them and see that my children were still okay. One look down at my clothing told me that my appearance would only frighten and upset them. There would either be time for a loving reunion later, or it wouldn’t matter.

A car honked its horn repeatedly outside in the parking lot and I took off at a run. The clock was ticking down and there was still time to fail.

The drive to Orlando will forever live in my nightmares. The highway west was crowded with refugees fleeing the coast, while the highway east was gridlocked with refugees fleeing the city. Nowhere was safe.

Cecily threaded in and out of all lanes of traffic and I had to close my eyes and trust to her superior reflexes. I was really going to need my voice back for facing the coven and screaming every time I thought we were going to crash and die was not doing my vocal folds any good.

I braced my feet on the floor, made sure my seatbelt was riding under my belly, and tried to sway with the car. The witch had less faith in Cecily’s driving ability and was yelling his head off every five seconds as she tested the car’s breaking and high speed turning abilities.

Other than the cries of terror, the furious honking of other drivers, and the screeching of tires, the ride was a silent one. When we reached Orlando the witch gave quick directions to the mansion where the coven was waiting for confirmation of my death. I guess I would be bringing them the bad news personally.

“Please,” he begged, as we pulled up to huge wrought iron gates that closed off the mansion’s driveway. “I did what you asked. Let me out here.”

“Code,” Cecily snapped, rolling down the window at the keypad/intercom box.

“If I tell you, will you let me go?” he asked. “I can’t go in there with you! They’ll kill me!”

:Funny:
Bastet purred to me.
:We thought that was what
he
was planning to do to
you
:

“Tell me the code and I won’t rip your arm off and beat you to death with it,” Cecily said.

She punched the intercom button.

“Menzel,” a voice crackled.

Cecily gave the witch a look that had him scrabbling as far away from her as he could. “Elphaba!” he whispered. “Elphaba.”

“Elphaba,” Cecily said loudly and the gates creaked and swung open in front of us.