Dread Nemesis of Mine (25 page)

What the hell?

Dazed, I staggered to my feet, grabbed a
wooden rod off the floor and extended it toward the terminal rods.
Either Dash had a protective spell around them, or the energy
channeling through them was too much for the wood to handle. It
splintered and broke without ever making contact.

Ignoring the terminals, I bent down and
pulled on the cable. A wave of dizziness passed over me and a
nauseous feeling clawed up my throat. My stomach felt engorged with
hot acid. My head pulsed with a static feeling, as though a cat
were licking my brain. I dropped the cable and staggered away
before I succumbed to the madness lurking in that energy. I felt
disoriented and drunk. Sick with too much power, like a go-cart
burning rocket fuel.

My knees hit the floor and my vision faded
to static. Forcing back the barf crawling up my throat, I tried to
shake off the nausea. After a long moment, my hands against the
rough stone floor came into focus. Blood welled from the palms of
each one where I'd gripped the cable. Tiny bolts of lightning
seemed to dance across the spots of blood.

Wiping the blood from my hands, I staggered
to my feet and regarded the oversized garden snake. I couldn't free
the beast. Maybe only Dash could. I peeked around the corner. The
Arcane's attention lay solely on his display, monitoring a group of
vampires as they raced toward Elyssa and the other Templars. I was
out of time. I considered shooting him with the gun Michael had
given me, but it seemed overkill when I could probably sneak up and
knock him out.

Making my way past the cages outside the
leyworm's room, I stepped over the cable and dashed for Dash. Ten
feet. Seven. Five. I raised my fist. An alarm wailed. I smacked
into something very invisible and very solid, rebounding like a
baby off a sliding glass door.

The Arcane jumped out of his chair and
turned to me, one hand extended in front of him. His eyes widened.
He smiled. "You came back to us, I see." He flicked his wrist and a
cage in the back area opened. Another flick of the wrist sent my
gun flying to land on the table behind him. "I'll just put you away
and deal with you later."

An unseen force clamped around me. I
couldn't move. I could hardly breathe. It pushed me toward the
cages, and there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it

A beam of brilliant purple speared toward
Dash. It hit his invisible barrier and slowed, burrowing through
after a second, and struck him between the shoulder blades,
knocking him to the floor. The pressure on me vanished. I stood and
saw Bella, staff extended, continue to blast Dash with the purple
light.

The man, still crouched, waved a hand
through the air. Bella's energy refracted and washed across the
barrier, no longer penetrating it. Dash stood up, teeth bared in
anger, his white hair standing straight on end like static-charged
cotton. "Think you can come into my house and beat me, bitch?" He
held a hand toward the Tesla coil. A jagged bolt of bright light
raced to meet his fingers. He aimed his other hand at Bella. Energy
crackled from his fingertips. Bella ducked behind a crate as the
beams splintered wood and blasted parts of the stone floor to
dust.

I knew there was no way I could help. My
magic skills were crap, and I couldn't physically reach him. I
considered letting the vampling and cherub loose, but they'd
probably chase me in circles before going for him, and then what?
I'd be toast.

On the other hand—a suicidal notion gripped
me, but I could think of no other way to cut the Arcane off from
his source. I just had to hope it worked. I ran back into the back
room and offered an uneasy smile to the leyworm.

"Hey there, buddy. I can help you out if you
promise not to eat me or my friend. Can you do that?"

It roared in my face hard enough to blow my
hair straight back.

I suddenly wished I still had on adult
diapers. "I'm going to take that for a yes." I examined the straps.
They were a foot wide and layered with jagged edges that bit into
the leyworm's scales and kept it from slithering out. I stood at
the edge of the closest strap and prepared to flee the moment it
was loose. Leaning down, I extended a finger. Touched the strap.
Leapt away. The creature's eyes swiveled to follow me. The strap,
however, remained in place.

The big red eye rotated to meet my gaze. The
pupil shrank to an angry pinpoint of black.

The leyworm made a strange growling noise
like a dog trying to speak humanese. Or maybe it was just hungry. I
touched the strap with the palm of my hand. Still nothing. It was
all I could do not to shout in frustration. I might need Maximus's
or Dash's blood to open the stupid thing. Gripping the strap in
both hands, I tugged.

And almost fell on my butt when it
parted.

The leyworm twisted, but still couldn't get
free. I jumped back as its flailing body nearly slammed into me.
The next strap split, but only after I touched the entire width of
it where I wanted it to part. Before the creature could use its new
freedom to gobble me up, I raced to the last strap and slashed my
hand across it.

The snakelike dragon roared and twisted. The
terminals swiveled and rocked with sick, wet sounds in the
monster's flesh. The creature's eyes widened, probably in agony. I
found the farthest corner of the room and watched in sick
fascination as it struggled. It jerked once, twice, three times.
The bladed terminals slid from the leyworm's body in a spray of
crimson, and clanked to the floor. I heard the Tesla coil snap,
crackle, and pop one last time before it faded to black with a low
hum.

Dash's eyes flicked toward the device. He
screamed profanities.

Bella jumped from behind the splintered
remains of her dwindling cover. "Got you now, punk!" She aimed the
staff and blasted him with purple energy. Dash ducked the first
blast and grabbed his own staff off the floor.

"I can still kick your ass," he said and
retorted with a bolt of black light.

Their attacks, beams of pure crackling
energy, met in the center, pulsating and pushing back and forth
against one another, undulating up and down like two snakes
furiously French kissing. Rock and wood disintegrated to dust where
the two forces touched them. I didn't want to see what would happen
should either force touch one of the Arcanes. Bella gritted her
teeth in determination. Dash growled as sweat gathered at his brow.
Slowly, he reached a hand back toward the table where the
holographic image hovered, hand grasping at my gun.

I charged toward Dash, shouting a warning
for Bella, when something bowled me over and flattened me against
the ground. The breath whooshed from my lungs and I thought for
sure I was dead. The pressure vanished. I staggered to my feet and
saw Dash lift the gun.

"Die, you stupid—aghh!"

And then the leyworm ate him.

Bella screamed.

"Holy crap!" I shouted as the earth dragon's
jaws chomped down on the sorcerer, spraying the vicinity with gouts
of blood and all sorts of nasty tidbits.

Before I could move, the creature opened its
bloody maw wide and came right at me. I froze, my life flashing
before my eyes. The creature whizzed past close enough to make me
spin in place. It burrowed through the stone wall like hot butter,
made a sharp turn, and vanished.

"Oh dear," Bella said, staring at the puddle
of bloody chunks where Dash had met his grisly end. "No matter how
many times you see something like this, you never get used to
it."

I gagged and looked away. "How many times
exactly have you seen a leyworm eat a person?"

"A person? I believe this is the first
time."

Walking wide of the blood, I went to Dash's
holographic display and zoomed in on Elyssa and the others. The
vampires were standing just around the corner from them, apparently
plotting out their plan of attack. My allies had their backs to the
enemy. They'd be wide open. Elyssa dropped off the wall she'd
climbed earlier and walked toward the others, unaware of the
danger. I pulled out my phone and told it to call her.

She looked at her phone when it chirped at
her and answered. "Justin?"

"Get ready. You have vampires at six
o'clock!"

The vampires piled around the corner, guns
at the ready just as Elyssa shouted a warning. White light speared
from behind the cover of a crate, slashing across the attackers.
Guns dropped from nerveless hands as the surprised vampires gripped
their smoking flesh and dropped dead, their bodies sliding into
halves. Somehow, their leader used the butt of his assault rifle to
hold himself up. Adam appeared from behind the crates and kicked
the lone survivor in the chest. The surprised vampire's torso slid
off, spilling innards all over the ground.

"Good heavens," Bella said, violet eyes
wide. "I believe Mr. Nosti might be upset."

It was all I could do not to puke. "Ya
think?" I scrolled around the battlefield and focused on the
pinned-down Templars. There were too many vampires between Fausta's
force and theirs. "Still there, Elyssa?" I said into my phone.

"How did you know about the vampires?" she
asked.

"A leyworm just ate Dash. He's got an
eagle-eye view of the entire place on his tablet, so I can see
everything."

"Ate him?" She made a gagging noise. "What
about the Templar force coming in from the other secret
tunnel?"

I found them hunkered down on the opposite
side. They seemed to have a better shot at getting past the
vampires than our side did. Somehow we had to find a way past.
Could we go under? Over? I spotted another group of evil-doers
flanking the pinned-down Templars and realized it was only a matter
of minutes before all this planning was moot. With the force coming
up behind them, they'd be overwhelmed in no time. Somehow, I had to
contact them. If only I had a way to—it suddenly occurred to me I
was standing in front of Dash's control interface, and not just a
simple overhead view of the situation.

I face palmed. "Stupid, Justin. Real
stupid."

Bella watched me curiously. "What is
it?"

I circled the group of flanking vampires
with a finger, lighting them up on the display. Using the method
I'd seen Dash use, I streaked a finger across the map, leading them
back to Elyssa and the others. One of the vampires stopped, pressed
a finger into his ear and nodded. He waved his finger in a circle
in the air and motioned the vampires toward the route I'd
indicated.

"Elyssa, I know how we're gonna win this
thing."

"Oh?"

I told her my plan. "Can your people handle
it?"

She nodded. "What happens if the bad guys
catch on?"

I shrugged even though she couldn't see me.
"Let's hope they don't."

The first group of vampires I'd re-routed
closed fast on Elyssa's position. Using my finger, I drew a new
circuitous route while Elyssa filled in the others. I panned the
view until I found a side entrance and group of fifty armed vamps
guarding it. I highlighted a few at a time and sent them to various
places in the compound until only a few remained. Then I located
any sentries on that side of the compound and sent them to the top
of the wall opposite.

"Ready?" I asked Elyssa.

"Reinforcements are on the way."

Flicking the view to the side, I spotted a
small squad of Templars sneaking up to the now lightly guarded
entrance. Within the space of a minute, they downed the guards with
lancers and secured them. I sent small groups of vamps to the
entrance, one at a time, watching as the Templars secured each
squad in a quiet, efficient manner. I lost count of how many
vampires I sent to their non-lethal doom, but no matter how many
were out of action, scores more remained.

Maximus had organized his people into
military squads, and the leader of each one seemed outfitted with
some kind of device enabling Dash's gizmo to give them orders. In
fact, the level of organization was almost frightening. True, most
of the vampires were just untrained kids, but it reminded me a lot
of the dog soldiers in Africa. How long until Maximus brainwashed
even more people into killing for no other reason than he simply
wanted them to? Vampires already held a considerable advantage over
noms with their supernatural strength and agility. If he decided to
use his army against a civilian population, they'd be hard to
stop.

The size of the vampire force had shrunk by
almost two-thirds, thanks to my redirection, when I saw a sizeable
group break off from the main force and head away. I zoomed in and
saw a familiar face—Amanda. She looked
pissed
. According to
my aerial view of the compound, she was headed for Dash's hideout.
Toward the only way into this place.

And it was too late for us to escape.

I looked around Dash's super-secret lab and
saw no other way out. There was, no doubt, a hidden passage lurking
around here somewhere, but I didn't have time to find it.
Scrambling over the wreckage of crates and equipment left after
Dash's fight with Bella, I approached the hole the leyworm had
made. The edges of the stone cracked and broke off, brittle to my
touch where the creature had slammed through it.

"What are you doing?" Bella asked.

"We've got about five minutes before thirty
vamps storm this place."

Her brow furrowed. "But how—"

"Amanda. I think she figured out Dash wasn't
in control anymore."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah, you could say that." I peered into
the dark gap. My night vision popped on, granting me a better
glimpse of the path the leyworm had left. About ten feet into the
solid rock behind the stone wall, the creature had taken a sharp
left before diving straight down to parts unknown, leaving a neat
round hole and a terrifying drop my night vision lacked the range
to fully see. Across from the hole was a wall of crumbling rock,
probably where the leyworm had made the turn.