Beauty and the Beast (39 page)

Meanwhile, Joe, Diana, and Jerry had pulled their guns out and shot three more of the ruffians. Joe’s victim fell dead with a bullet to the center of his forehead.

Diana’s and Jerry’s victims fled the cave with serious wounds. At the same time, Jamie shot one man through the heart with her crossbow, but then she was snatched off her feet by another towering man who knocked her weapon out of her hand and started to run off with her as she screamed in panic. Jamie kicked and beat on the brutal determined man, but it had no effect on him. Isaac

rescued Jamie when he picked up a good-size rock and threw it at the man, hitting him on the back of his head. The assailant dropped Jamie and crashed to the floor of the cave. Jamie ran back to her crossbow, loaded it with one of her scattered arrows, and shot the man who had nearly made it to one of the cave openings with Rebecca, who was screaming, kicking, and biting him, also to no avail. He fell with Jamie’s arrow through his neck, and Rebecca ran crying back to the group.

The moment the men attacked, Tony grabbed Little Jacob out of his stroller. He raced to Catherine’s gurney, laid the baby beside his mother, and threw his body across them to try to protect them. Rolley, Mouse, Pascal, Father, and Peter formed a circle around Mary, Susan, Narcissa, and Laura to protect them while the chaotic battle took place.

As Devin ran to put himself between Catherine’s gurney and the two men trying to get to Catherine, Pascal called out to him, “Devin, take this!” Devin turned around and caught Pascal’s pipe baton as he threw it to him. Devin stood ready to protect Catherine, Little Jacob, and Tony, brandishing the baton, while Vincent was snarling and raking his claws across the two men. They were maniacally determined to get past him and grab Catherine, and they ignored the serious wounds Vincent was inflicting on them. Suddenly the biggest one leaped on Vincent, and then they were locked together in a fight to the death. The other man took that opportunity to run

past Vincent.

Devin saw him coming, and the rush of adrenalin gave him superhuman strength. When the thug rushed Devin with his arm raised, Devin crashed the baton against the man’s arm, breaking it with an audible crunch. Then he hit the man across his head with the baton, but he still didn’t go down and stumbled forward with his limp broken arm hanging at his side.

Meanwhile, Vincent’s panic over losing the man he knew was headed for Catherine, Little Jacob, and Tony caused the anger of his Demon to explode. With a furious roar, Vincent sank his fangs into his combatant’s neck, and he dropped to the floor of the cave mortally wounded. Tanimus and Elisia had stunned two more of the men with their weapons. As Vincent whirled around snarling and ready to attack, Tanimus quickly turned and stunned the man still swaying in front of Devin.

In less than fifteen minutes it was all over, and the entire group was in a state of shock. Charles was holding Brooke, who was shaking and crying. Isaac was holding Rebecca who was also hysterically sobbing. Jamie was furiously pacing around the group watching the cave openings attentively. They now had five dead bodies and four unconscious villains to deal with.

Vincent surveyed the group, doing an head count to be sure everyone was accounted for. He asked, “Is everyone all right?” They all nodded at him, and he said, “We need to leave this area as quickly as possible.”

Pascal spoke up as Devin was handing his pipe baton back to him. “What are we going to do about these unconscious men and the bodies?”

Tanimus answered him. “It is more important to get Catherine to the Tandin world for treatment than it is to take care of these villains. For the moment I suggest that we leave the bodies for the unconscious men to deal with when they wake up. I have already sent a telepathic message to our sentries posted further ahead to come and secure the area and bury the dead, if necessary.”

As they quickly left the tunnel world under Manhattan and traveled into the tunnels under the southern end of The Bronx, they began to descend lower into the earth.

The group was two days into their journey when they encountered more trouble.

Narcissa spoke ominously, “The evil one is here!” Vincent could feel it too, and he said, “Something is very wrong here.”

Jamie cried out at the back of the group. “Vincent,

Joe is hurt, and Diana is gone!”

Everyone ran back to where Jamie was kneeling beside an unconscious Joe. She had her hand pressed against a gushing head wound trying to stop the bleeding. There was a bloody rock about the size of a soft ball near him on the tunnel floor.

Peter and Father shed their backpacks and retrieved their medical bags. Then, Peter and Father, along with

Susan and Mary, knelt on the tunnel floor with Jamie to begin treating Joe’s wound, while Vincent once again did an head count to be sure everyone else was accounted for. The only one missing was Diana.

Elisia looked worried as she spoke. “Diana must be unconscious. I can feel her, but I am getting no communication back from her.”

Father spoke up. “There is a faint smell of chloroform here. Whoever took her must have had at least two people to knock Joe out and chloroform Diana simultaneously so it wouldn’t alert us.”

Tanimus then spoke. “Narcissa is right. We are not alone. Adrian is here with a small army of men, but so are thirty of our people. The other Tandins are telling me that Adrian has about fifty heavily armed men who have the appearance of vicious mercenaries. We are going to have to eliminate this threat, once and for all, before we can go any further.”

Joe was still unconscious as Father began stitching the now clean wound. When Father finished stitching, Susan helped Mary dress the wound. Peter then gave Joe a shot of antibiotic.

Jerry had also knelt down beside Joe as a thought occurred to him. His fear was confirmed when he checked Joe’s shoulder holster. “Joe’s gun has been taken, and they now have Diana’s as well.”

Vincent was having a terrible struggle keeping his avenging Demon under control as he worried about what was happening to Diana. He hadn’t felt this helpless since he had lost Catherine and Little Jacob to Gabriel. He paced continually around his beloved family and friends as Peter and Father worked on Joe.

Elisia approached Vincent and put her hand on her brother’s arm as she felt his Demon rising. “Vincent, don’t worry. We will be able to get Diana back, and I hope that it will be without any more bloodshed. We have a weapon against Adrian, which Dr. Vlas gave us before he left us, and we have been prepared for this final confrontation with Adrian for a very long time.”

Father looked up at Vincent from where he was kneeling beside Joe. “Vincent, you are not alone now in defending us against dangerous predators. A weapon is not all you are to us anyway. You no longer have to feel that it is your fate to shoulder that responsibility alone. You don’t have to be our avenging Demon.”

Vincent looked down at Father. “Thank you, Father, but I told an enemy once before, and I will say it again; all men are demons when their homes and families are threatened.”

Tanimus addressed the group. “Our people have secured a large cave up ahead where we can more easily protect everyone while we try to figure out how to deal with Adrian and his army. We need to move everyone there.”

Joe was still unconscious, so Vincent and Devin lifted him to his feet. Then, Charles gently put Joe over his shoulder, and the group moved on down the tunnel to the more defensible refuge the Tandins had secured. They entered a massive cavern with numerous stalactites and stalagmites. It had many ledges and outcroppings around the perimeter along with smaller caves. To the left of them, there was a very large Tandin man in his late forties, with a red mane of hair, standing at the mouth of one of those caves which was larger than the others.

Tanimus took the group over to him. “Hello, Gideon!” He shook the Tandin’s hand and then spoke to the group. “Gideon is one of our sentries, and he is going to stay with all of you while we see if we can locate Diana.”

Vincent spoke to the group, and they quietly followed his instructions as he picked Catherine up off her gurney. “Take your backpacks off, and find spots for each of your things in the cave. I don’t know how long we will have to be here, but if it becomes necessary to flee, I don’t want you slowed down by what you are carrying now. Try to get some rest, so that you are alert if the situation becomes worse.”

Vincent could have just rolled Catherine into the cave on her gurney, but he felt the need to place her in the hands of someone specific rather than just leaving her in the care of the group as a whole. He walked to Isaac with Catherine, and he put her into his arms. “Catherine is my life, Isaac, and I need for you to keep her safe and out of harm’s way while Uncle Tanimus and I deal with this threat. She trusted you with my life once, and now I trust

you with hers.”

Isaac nodded, “I promise you no one will lay a finger on her, Vincent.” Then Isaac looked at Tony. “Tony, please grab the gurney for Catherine.” The boy nodded as he rolled the gurney with Narcissa’s things on the bottom into the cave.

Rebecca was holding Little Jacob as Vincent continued and looked at each one as he addressed the remaining bodyguards. “Devin; Charles; Jerry; please make sure you have everyone else in sight at all times until this is over.” They all had very serious expressions as they nodded at him. Rebecca took Little Jacob to Vincent for a kiss before taking him into the cave with her.

Gideon could see that Vincent was reluctant to leave his beloved wife, family, and friends to go hunt for Adrian and Diana. He put his hand on Vincent’s shoulder as he said, “I promise you that I will look after them, Vincent. They will be safe here. I have checked every inch of this cave. We may be pinned down by Adrian’s army, but your family will be safe. We have sent for fifty more of our troops from our world. They are running and will be here in just a little over a day. There is even a fresh spring bubbling up at the back of this cave which makes it ideal if we have to be stuck here for awhile. West of our location we found a smaller cave with an hot spring in it which we can use when this is all over to bathe in. In fact, if it wasn’t for Adrian, this would be a relaxing vacation spot to camp in.”

Vincent smiled and nodded at him. “Thank you, Gideon.”

Mouse walked up to Vincent holding out an huge Kevlar vest and said, “Packed this for you. Knew you’d need it!”

Vincent chuckled and replied, “Thank you, Mouse!

That was very smart of you.” Vincent took off his outer shirt and handed it to Mouse as he put the vest on. Then he took his shirt back from Mouse and put it on over the Kevlar vest.

Jamie planted herself firmly in front of Vincent and said, “Vincent, I’m climbing up to that ledge to the right of the cave, so I can see any of Adrian’s men who might try to get to it.”

Vincent started to object. “No, Jamie, it is too dangerous.”

However, Elisia grabbed his arm and smiled up at him. “Let her go, Vincent. I promise you that she will be all right.” He looked down at Elisia with a worried expression for a few seconds, and then he smiled and nodded at Jamie. Jamie handed Mouse her backpack and shouldered her crossbow and quiver of arrows as she walked to the cavern wall to start climbing.

After they got everyone safely hidden in the cave, and Jamie was on her way up the cavern wall, Vincent, Tanimus, and Elisia shed their backpacks as well, handed them to Gideon, and then went hunting for Diana. They went back down the tunnel they had come from to see if they could track whoever took her. Vincent noticed that Elisia had put her hand on what looked like a small gun of some sort that was in an holster around her waist.

Vincent asked Elisia about it. “Is that the weapon you used against Paracelsus’ followers, Elisia?”

Elisia smiled at Vincent as she answered. “Yes, we call it an ion-tet stunner. It is a non-lethal weapon we have developed, which has an effect similar to a taser gun. It uses a combination of laser ionization and a tetanizing high-voltage frequency to stun the victim without causing any permanent damage. It renders them helpless for at least an hour.”

While Tanimus, Vincent, and Elisia were hunting for Diana, Jamie was climbing up the cavern wall to the ledge she had seen from below. That position was halfway up, and from it she could clearly see the mouth of the cave where they had left their precious charges. On the ledge, Jamie was only partially hidden between two large rock formations, with a small cave behind her, and she had her crossbow loaded and ready. She had laid her quiver of arrows down beside her. Suddenly, a large muscular arm wrapped around Jamie’s waist from behind, while at the same time, an huge fur-covered hand clamped over her mouth, stifling the cry of surprise which rose in her throat. She was snatched back into the cave just as a bullet hit the rock formation she had been standing next to and ricocheted off it.

Jamie found herself lifted off the ground with her back against a muscular torso, and her head held back against a broad shoulder. She looked up into the dark eyes of a very tall Tandin man with a brown mane in his late twenties. He took his hand off her mouth, but he still held her against him as he smiled down at her.

Jamie stuttered, “I—You—um—I’m—a—grateful?”

The Tandin’s eyes were twinkling as he said, “I’m very pleased to meet you, Grateful! I’m Dresden.”

Dresden’s teasing snapped Jamie back to her normal feisty personality. She shook her head and said, “Oh, perfect! Cathy gets rescued by the smart Tandin, and I get rescued by the smart-Alec Tandin!”

Dresden whispered in her ear, “Sorry! You are just so adorable when you’re rattled that I couldn’t resist.” He slowly lowered her to the ground. Feeling his hard muscles rippling against her back on the way down sent a thrill through Jamie’s entire body that she had never felt before, and she closed her eyes and gasped in confusion. As Jamie turned around and stared at him, Dresden then said, “Now, stay put in the cave, little Princess, while I go dispatch these two bad guys.”