In This Skin (43 page)

    ”Party's over, Eh-Eh-Ellery.”

    Seeing clearly now in that beautiful blue glow, he touched the stage curtain with the flame.

    Boyoh-boy-was he right, or was he right about that dry material.

    

    

    Benedict barely had time to drop Robyn's sweatpants in the corner, where they'd be out of her way Then Robyn's baby came.

    With the face of an athlete racing toward the finish line, eyes staring straight ahead, mouth open, panting, she concentrated on nothing but pushing the baby along the birth canal. Perspiration dripped down her face. Still with her back to the kitchen wall, she slid into a crouching position. Ellery stood by her side, unable to help in real terms, but attentive.

    ”It's coming,”she panted. ”Oh, God, it's here…”

    Benedict moved to be close to her but instinct had kicked in. The woman delivered her own baby, taking it in her hands, as it slipped smoothly, wetly from her body. Her abdomen convulsed with powerful muscle tremors as she expelled the child completely. Benedict noted there was no umbilical cord. Then this was no ordinary pregnancy. The child would be different, too, perhaps in ways he could not even imagine.

    Ellery moved as if he'd had years of experience of assisting at births.

    He picked up the big, soft bath towel he'd left across the back of the chair for this purpose, and with Robyn's help, wrapped the baby. When he placed the bundle, cocooned in fluffed cotton, in her arms, she looked down at the newborn child.

    ”Ellery,”she said softly, ”would you move the towel down a little? I want to see my baby's face.”

    Ellery did so, delicately teasing the towel down so Robyn had a clear view.

    Benedict West found himself holding his breath in anticipation of what the new mother would see when, for the first time, she closely examined what she had just given birth to.

    

    

    The moments went spinning out as if everyone in the kitchen at the Luxor dance hall had been cut free from time and space. Here was the most natural thing in the world, a mother with her newborn baby. Only forces beyond Benedict's understanding had interfered with the processes of conception, gestation and birth. This was no ordinary situation repeated endlessly in maternity wards. This might happen only once every thousand years.

    Benedict could barely breathe as he watched Robyn examine the child as only a mother could. His heart beat with hammerlike fury against his ribs. He found himself anxious as to how he would react if she looked up at him in horror and screamed out that the child possessed some monstrous feature or alien limbs. Those moments went spinning out and out as if forever. He waited for her to utter the results of her scrutiny. He felt the itch of a fear sweat on his back. Surely, she'd have to speak soon. Maybe she was afraid to express what she'd found in words. As for Benedict, he couldn't bear to look at mother and child.

    Instead he focused on the kitchen table, not daring to even glance through the window in case he saw something hideous reflected in the glass A hand touched his forearm. He looked down to see Robyn as she sat there on the floor, back to the wall, the baby bundled in the towel.

    ”Benedict.”She breathed out the words. ”He's perfect.”

    Ellery flashed Benedict a sudden grin that lit up his face. ”A boy!”

    Benedict crouched down, too. ”And he's…”

    ”Fine. Perfect. A beautiful baby boy.”

    Benedict glimpsed a tiny face with plump cheeks. A wet cowlick of hair stuck to a forehead. Bloodstains still smudged the clenched hands that poked over the edge of the towel. One hand gave a little twitch; briefly, small fingers extended. Four fingers. One thumb. Each with a delicately formed fingernail.

    Benedict sighed with relief. ”I'll go tell Dad.”But he'd only walked halfway across the kitchen floor when he paused. ”Wait… does anyone smell burning?”

    

    

    Benedict went to the end of the hallway to see what he could see down the furniture-choked stairwell. Behind him in the kitchen, Noel and Nathaniel had gone to see the baby for themselves. Benedict could hear Robyn (now dressed once more) reassuring an anxious Noel that the baby was perfectly healthy and perfectly normal. Benedict guessed Nathaniel was anxious, too. If the baby was this much-needed healer, then he needed to know the newborn was in good shape, too. There was also the question: how would this healing process in that gray borderland between the two worlds work?

    Although that mystery would have to wait. Those monsters at the other side of the barricade were still hammering at the door (and ripping away chunks by the sound of it). Another powerful question needed an answer, too. Where the hell was that smoke coming from?

    

    

    Shit… this wasn't the best decision he'd ever made. In fact, his whole strategy had gone butt-side-up. Logan backed across the stage, watching the sheet of flame spread up the massive stage curtain. Heat stung his face. By the light of the fire he'd started, he could see smoke pouring across the dance hall ceiling more than twenty feet above his head.

    Already the lighting gantry had vanished into a blue fog. Gobs of burning material fell from the curtain to the stage. The heat scorched his exposed skin.

    Shit no, not your best decision, old buddy. But I couldn't wait forever.

    I needed to get this show on the road.

    Only now his enemies would probably scatter from the inferno before he could extract retribution with the gun.

    Whoever was pounding on wood hadn't let the fire disturb them. Maybe they didn't even know that this dry-aspaper place had caught alight? The idea of a bunch of goofballs sitting around Ellery Hann playing a big marching drum or whatever the hell the source of the noise was sent balls of flaming anger surging through Logan's veins.

    I'll show him, he thought. I'll show the weird little stutter monkey…

    With his fury as much alight as the Luxor now, Logan jumped down from the stage. Illuminated by the fire that engulfed the entire curtain, he raced across the dance floor toward the lobby. As he ran he dragged back the bolt of the submachine gun, his finger snaked sensuously around the trigger. With a yell of exultation he burst through the door.

    Shit…

    What the hell were they doing? What the hell were they?

    Anywhere between a dozen and twenty men and women clustered around the far side of the lobby. Men and women! Freaking hell, they weren't people, they were monsters. They were misshapen things with weird manes of hair, bulging eyes, axe-slash mouths… some didn't even have arms, but limbs that coiled like serpents. And they weren't beating a party drum but wrecking a door, clearly aiming to break into what must be a locked room.

    They didn't pay attention to Logan when he stood there aiming the submachine gun at them. All their attention was nailed tight to that door they were assiduously tearing to pieces. Boy there must be some treasure and a half beyond it.

    Logan called out to them. ”Hey”

    They carried on working at the door, tossing aside chunks of timber behind them.

    ”Hey!”

    Still they worked without even glancing back.

    ”Hey I said look at me!”

    Enraged by being ignored, Logan let the motherfuckers have it. The whole clip. The entire thirty rounds. A yard of fire spurted from the muzzle.

    Its clatter snapped at his eardrums. In the gloom of the lobby he even saw the 9-mm slugs speed toward their monster targets. Fiery meteors, shooting awaaa-aaay… Keeping his finger tight on the trigger, he raked the crowd. Seconds later the ammo clip emptied. Silence rushed back. Gunsmoke hazed the air blue. In front of him the entire pack of creatures had fallen.

    Awed by the killing power of the weapon, Logan took two paces toward the dead and dying creatures that lay in a growing lake of their own blood.

    Hell… he'd downed the lot. Not one left standing.

    But where's Ellery Hann?

    A crash sounded from the dance floor; Logan glanced back. Dirty rivers of smoke poured through the lobby doors. The whole place was going up.

    With the front entrance boarded shut, there was only one way out. Logan decided to retreat to a safe distance and watch Ellery Hann emerge when the heat got too much for the stutter monkey Then: Bingo!

    

    

    Benedict had advanced down the stairwell as far as the tangled plug of assorted furniture that formed the barricade to keep the creatures at bay when he heard machine-gun fire. Instantly it put a stop to the sound of the door being smashed. The downside was that after the clatter of the gun died away the smell of burning grew stronger. Mingled with acrid gunsmoke was the aromatic scent of burning wood.

    Damn, he thought. The Luxor's on fire.

    Sitting in the apartment waiting for everything to get better by itself wasn't an option. A second realization hit him: Mariah Lee's still under the stage…

    Benedict ran back to the kitchen where Robyn and Noel sat side by side on the floor with their backs to the wall. Both gazed in wonder at the bundle in the towel. Ellery and Nathaniel sat on the chairs at a respectful distance, watching the baby's arm wave in the air.

    Noel said, ”We need to get Robyn and the baby to a hospital. They've got to be checked over.”

    ”No.”This came with a steely firmness from Nathaniel.

    Benedict noticed Noel glance at the revolver he'd put down beside him.

    The king and queen of all arguments was on its way, but Benedict had more pressing news. ”We've got to get out of here.”

    ”There w-was gunfire,”Ellery said, cocking his head to one side, perhaps realizing that the hammering on the door had stopped.

    ”There was,”Benedict agreed, his words coming out in a hurry ”But don't ask me who was shooting. Listen: The Luxor's on fire. I'm sure of it.”

    ”On fire?”

    ”Where, I don't know. But the only way out is through the stage door at the back of the building. If we don't move now, we'll be trapped.”

    Noel looked stunned. ”But what about those things downstairs? They're not going to let Robyn stroll out here with the baby”

    ”We'll have to fight our way through if need be. It's either that or stay here and fry.”Benedict saw Ellery's eyes stray to the window.

    ”Don't even think about exiting that way. It's a thirty-foot drop to hardtop. Jumping twenty feet to the ground's lethal in most cases. That kind of distance is the same as a bullet in the brain.”

    Noel checked the gun. ”Fully loaded. Robyn, can you walk?”

    ”Yes, but help me up.”

    Benedict turned to Nathaniel and Ellery. ”See if you can find weapons. A knife or hammer”

    Nathaniel spoke doggedly, ”Robyn must not leave here with the baby. The baby is a healer. He is needed by my people.”He nodded with conviction.

    ”The baby stays here.”

    ”The baby's going to die if he stays here. Come on.”

    Neither Nathaniel nor Ellery chose a weapon. Benedict chose a carving knife from the drawer. New and wickedly sharp. As Ellery took the baby Noel helped Robyn stand. Meanwhile, Nathaniel pounded through to the stairwell, where he began dragging out the furniture. The giant moved with speed and controlled power. Benedict stood back to allow him to dismantle their barricade so they could descend the stairs and confront whatever waited in the lobby

    

    

    Noel insisted on going first. He moved down the stairwell holding the handgun in front of him. He paused at the shattered door, then glanced out into the foyer, his head turning in rapid twists as he shone the flashlight. Then he looked back up at them as they waited at the top of the stairs.

    ”Come on down,”he told them. ”It's not pretty, but it's safe.”

    As soon as they reached the foyer Benedict saw what Noel meant. There'd been a slaughter here. That machine-gun fire had killed the creatures where they stood. Benedict judged there to be fifteen or so corpses lying clustered about the doorway. Gingerly, he stepped over the gory bodies, feet squelching into blood-soaked carpet.

    ”The smoke smells stronger down here,”Noel said.

    ”My guess is that someone's set fire to the building to drive us out.”

    ”Those?”Ellery asked, nodding at the dead creatures.

    ”Could be. Or whoever killed them.”

    ”A m-man called Logan,”Ellery said. ”He… he's promised to kill me.”

    ”Looks as if the guy's gone on a whole killing spree.”Noel helped Robyn through the swamp of crimson grue. She held the baby tight in its towel shawl. Remarkably, her expression was calm. She knew her priorities.

    This bloodshed wasn't going to faze her. Her son came first now.

    ”We have to exit through the stage area,”Benedict said. ”I'll bring Mariah out.”

    ”I'll come with you.”Nathaniel's eyes blazed with a cold fire of their own.

    There was something unreadable in the giant's expression. There's a secret hidden behind that blue-white face, Benedict told himself. The man is planning something Noel's opening the doors released a wall of dirty black smoke into the lobby. ”We're going to have to move fast,”he shouted. ”The whole place is going up!”

    Mariah… Benedict thought of her trapped beneath the blazing stage.

    Smoke… heat… she can't survive this.