Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux (21 page)

Voices cried out but they sounded muted to Myles. He had been
shot directly in the heart and there was so much blood on the snow
now. He was not sure what was being said but Catalina spoke frantically
with Carn who at first was angry but after Catalina spoke he sounded
more of concern.

Lying on the cold snow Myles could feel the warmth of some
kind of powerful energy building next him where Catalina sat. She
radiated with light all around her. She had told him how vampires could
take feed on the emotions of others but he had never seen it done. She
took all of the emotion and desperation that was inside of him and
converted it into raw energy. She absorbed all of the shock from the
other vampires and even the anger from her brothers. It all filled her
and she glowed with it. Not like a Miyka… light exploded all around her.

Myles began to fade. Darkness was closing in on him. He felt
panic and remorse. He clung to life with all he had. But then Catalina
took all of that energy and poured it into him. It killed him. Myles
stopped breathing but he was still alive. His body stopped all of its
processes and entered a solid state almost as if his insides were
petrified and preserved. He was dead but felt more alive in this moment
than he ever had. The ecstasy of the emotion he was being fed was
incredible. All of his own emotion, all of her emotions, and the shock of
all of the vampires gathered was poured into him. When all was said
and done Myles knew what he was. He was not only a vampire but he
was their King.

IGNACIO SMILED. Myles Callaghan had paid part of his debt with
his and his wife’s lives. Ignacio needed to make sure that the rest was
paid too. He made his way into the castle. It was easy with all of the
chaos outside. Every guard had run from the castle to the location of
the wedding just outside of. He slipped in and made one of the servants
tell him where the Kings chambers were after which he cut her throat.
Then he slipped into the King's chambers and grabbed the jewels that
Myles had taken out of his coat the night prior. Ignacio had found the
jeweler and confirmed that Myles had converted the money to rare
jewels so he knew exactly what he was looking for.

As he turned to leave, the wife was there
. I killed her. I watched
the bullet go straight through them both.
Yes, there was a hole where
the bullet had gone through her clothing but the flesh was healed
completely. Ignacio raised his pistol only to drop it.
She is in my head,
taking control of my body.
Ignacio sat right there on the floor. Then he
put his hands under his legs. She was not afraid of his visage. She was
cold anger. Ignatio’s mind was on overload. She was playing his entire
life in fast forward not only for her own benefit but Ignacio could see it
too.
She wants me to know.
Fear came over Ignacio.
I’m going to die.

She shook her head. She bent over and looked him directly in
his crocodile eyes. “No Ignacio, I am not like you. I do not kill out of fear.
I am no murderer.” She took the jewels that he had dropped on the
table to grab his gun and stuffed them in his pockets. “You are going to
tell your Don that Myles’ debt is paid…” She walked over to a chest at
the side of the room and took a very large diamond out of the chest and
stuffed that into his pocket first. “… with interest. You are going to
convince him that Myles is still alive and protected by a force unlike
anything he has ever come up against. You are going to convince him
that it is in his best interests to leave Myles alone and never to send
anyone here again.”

“And what if he won’t leave Myles alone,” Ignacio replied.

Her gaze got colder. “Then you will do what you do best. Kill
him. Then you will take his place as Don and you will protect the secret
of Myles’ location.” It was not merely words or a suggestion. There was
power to the words. They took hold of him and became part of him.
Ignacio got up and bowed his head. He left the castle grounds
determined to get back to earth and deliver the message he had been
instructed to give the Don.

Ignacio made his way through the thick snow and over the
mountain to the tunnel he had exited from. There, waiting for him, was
Charli.
Can no one I kill stay dead?

He was about 40 yards from there when he saw her leaning
against the inside of the brick tunnel watching with glinted cat eyes and
waiting for him. He lay down in the snow and began to set up his sniper
rifle. But even as he began to set up, the barrel of the rifle bent back
towards him. The walking talking cat of a girl approached him. As she
got closer Ignacio was lifted into the air. “I killed you,” said Ignacio.

She smiled, “I guess that leaves 8 lives left.”

 

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now,”
she said dryly.

He reached into his pocket and grabbed a ruby. Then he tossed
it in the snow in front of her. She bent over to look at it and smiled
again. “I will need more than that. But it’s a start.”

“I got nothing more I can give. That was my portion, the rest I
have belongs to someone else,” he said.

 

“Give me information then. Myles Callaghan, is he linked with
Omar?”

“Yes he is. We found out about the portal by sending someone
through the one that Myles went through. He came back months later
but insisted he had only stepped in for a moment and then came back
through. There was a news story on Dr. Omar Metzger's disappearance
the same day. The Don was approached by a man named Haylale. He
made all of the connections for us between Myles and Omar and he told
us that Jack's team was planning to go into the portal. I infiltrated Jack’s
team to find him. Going with a team with a scientist was the best option
for us. I found him and shot him but I am told he is still alive,” he said.

“Then the job isn’t done,” she said.

Ignacio shrugged. “It is. I got the money back and a warning to
give to the Don. That should be enough for the Don to realize he would
be wasting resources if he went after them.”

“So you didn’t kill Myles Callaghan?” She gave him an intrigued
look.

 

He shook his head. “I killed him as much as I killed you but
apparently an assassin’s job is much harder on other worlds.”

 

“Which way is the castle?”

 

He gave her detailed instructions on how to get there.

She approached him with a feral look in her eyes. “Let me give
you one more thing to remember me by.” He felt his body go stiff. She
was holding him in place with her telekinesis in case he thought of
trying something. She took her claws and raked the across the right rise
of his head down the left side of his crocodile snout. The gouges were
very deep.

“That is for killing me. If I ever see you again, I will return the
favor,” she said.

 

She held him in place until she disappeared in the distance
heading towards the castle.

CALEB AND OWEN HAD EXITED THEIR TUNNEL and found
themselves in a tropical environment. Caleb looked around and found a
giant footprint. He knew what it was. As a child he had loved studying
dinosaurs and knew them by categorization. It was the infamous
Tyrannosaurus Rex. He looked to Owen with a great big smile on his
face. “Do you know what this is?!”

Owen nodded his head, “It’s a huge dinosaur. Let’s get out of
here.”

 

Caleb laughed. “Sure we can leave this place but we will do it in
style. Did you forget about my abilities?”

Caleb let out a cry that sounded bigger than his own body could
make. It shook the ground. A dozen raptors, a sauropod, and a
tyrannosaurs answered the call. Caleb took control of them
immediately. He was positive that dinosaurs, at least the meat eaters,
where not animals he could train. Caleb laughed, “Now we have our
own army.”

Owen knew the ins and outs of all the weapons and explosives
that they had packed. He knew that each weapon was equipped with a
tracking device and a tracker. “Hold up,” said Owen, “Let’s see who is
here. I paid close attention to who grabbed what weapons and there
are tracking devices on each one.” Owen removed a panel from his
shotgun where there was a readout that read, “Sniper rifle 994 mi
North, sun-blast grenades 996 mi North”. Owen smiled, “You will be
happy to know that your cousin is here. She is a few miles away from
Ignacio.”

Caleb sighed, “That is too long of a distance to travel with this
crowd.” He looked around and found that the t-rex had come from a
nest where there were eggs. Caleb walked over and took one of the
eggs. “I promise to take good care of it and keep it very warm,” he said
to the mother.

Owen rolled his eyes. “How are we going to get there? That is a
lot of distance to travel.”

 

Caleb nodded, “Well, I think you are small enough to fly on my
back. If not I can call a pterodactyl!”

 

Owen shook his head. “I would prefer your back.”

Caleb put the egg into one of his bags that had thermal heating.
Then he beckoned Owen to climb onto his back as he spread his wings
and took flight. They had a long way to go.

10
Prayer ad Heeling

Kasey and Misia played the part of rescuers. They went below
the Cathedral to where the military recruits had fallen and first helped
those who could not swim to safety. They had found a shallow area
where people could stand so they took them there. They gathered
everyone who had not already moved on. One of the passersby had
even called them fools for wasting the time to help the weaker of them.

Some of these people were scared. They had entered the
Gauntlet with visions of glory but were not prepared to be challenged.
Kasey tried to encourage them. “This is a contest and I am not a fool.
But I also have no illusions. They are looking for a champion who has the
ability to lead all of the armies of Soterion. I am that leader and I plan to
prove it here. You can follow me and I will promise you a greater chance
of living as long as you do as I command without question. I have a
power on my side like none of you have ever seen.” She looked over her
shoulder to her wings, “I think that is evident at this point. So decide
now those of you who will follow me, those of you who will give up, and
those of you who will move ahead on your own.” The group was all
together a hundred people. There was much discussion and after a few
minutes she said, “Those of you who plan to follow me go stand by
Misia. Those of you who don’t just stay where you are. Tifus, the Gabad
she had spoken to earlier was the first to line up beside Misia. There
were thirty others who lined up with him. The others went forward or
headed back to leave the Gauntlet. Kasey looked them over.

There were five Adam, four Nepsah, two Remmys, two Am
Mayim who had helped them with those who were unable to swim, one
Katken, one Akana, seven Gabad, five Daqad, one Yaarma and two of
the new race of Showradam.

Kasey addressed them, “Welcome to my command. Now, any
who can’t swim step forward.”

A Daqad, a Katken, and an Adam stepped forward. They all
looked ashamed of themselves. “Don’t be discouraged. There are two
Am Maiym. One can take the Katken and the Daqad and the other can
take the human… I mean Adam.”

“Let me explain to you your chain of command. I am your
commander, Misia is my second, and Tifus here is my third. Any of us
can give you orders as long as those orders do not conflict. If you get
conflicting orders bring them to me.”

Tifus looked surprised.

“Now, we need to move forward and to do so quickly. We will
split up in two teams: The water team and the air team.” She had one
Gabad carry the two Remmys, each Gabad carry two Daqad and then a
Gabad per Adam. Kasey chose to carry the two Showradam. Thank the
Shepherd for leaving me with Kalat strength. And Misia would carry the
Akana and the Yaarma. Kasey ordered the two teams to travel at the
same speed with status reports regularly. As they moved forward they
came across several dead sharks in the water. The water team reported
that the water got colder the further they went on. But eventually they
reached land which led to stairs. Kasey sent the Nepsah in to scout.
They came back to report a massive battle in the room above and that it
didn’t look like any of the participants had moved past that room. The
room was filled with Showradam who looked to the Nepsah to be
formidable warriors. There were no fatalities but many wounded by the
Showradam. Kasey drew her gun. She had always been a fan of
revolvers but the limit was that she only had six bullets before she had
to reload. The count of Showradam upstairs was two dozen.
How do I
get past this? Do we fight? It doesn’t seem to be working for those
above.

“We will not fight,” she concluded.

She took the invisibility device she had gotten from Omar off
and looked at it. “I am going to send each person in one at a time. You
will wear this and the Showradam will not see you. Nepsah, I need you
to go in and go to the exit from that room. Once the person wearing this
is in and safe bring it back to me so I can send the next person in.”

Kasey gave it first to Misia. She would need leadership on the
other side to make sure nothing got out of control and to makes sure
that no one tried to run off with her device. After a few minutes the
Nepsah came back with the device. Then she sent Tifus. She kept
sending people until all that was left was Kasey. The Nepsah came back
and then they followed her in. Kasey surveyed the room and it was total
chaos. No one was working together at all and the Showradam were
ridiculously good fighters. They were taking on dozens of recruits at a
time. She found herself curious as to how she might fair against one.
But looking to these creatures that were over twice her height and four
times her body mass she decided it would be wise to save her energy
and strength for later. This was a first phase of who knew how many.

Her team was very excited to see her. “I knew I made the right
choice,” said Tifus. “We went from behind to ahead.”