Judgement (The Twelve) (9 page)

She pulled him close and whispered in his ear, “I like you, but you do stink a bit.”

“Hey I had a shower!” Chris commented.

Patch grinned, “
Ingrained! Y
ou n
eed a bath as well and this time,
try using soap.”

After they had left the room, Hot Cross
who had remained silent approached Anvil and
spoke for them all,

”
Is he the one?”

Anvil
placed his
hammer
head first on the floor, resting both hands upon
its
hilt, “If he’d died and been reborn I would say yes we’ve found him at last, but…..”

Hot Cross finished for him, “Kid never died.”

Each stood quietly, deep in thought for several minutes. Suddenly Huntress flew in through a door that led to the back of the house and the kitchen. Her white flowing hair swirled around her head, as her white sightless eyes fixated upon Hammer,
“Several
Shades are in the grounds.”

Priest let out a bellow of surprise, “What!”

“That’s not all, Edge and Claws are with them.”

Heartless spat into the roaring log fire, “Not again! Hw the hell they find us so damn quick?”

A quick
whoosh
of air and Speed appeared from upstairs, fastening his trousers, “Did I hear right?”

Anvils
head snapped to Hot Cross, “Get Patch and the kid down here. Where
are
the others?”

“
Slash
is guarding the back door. Bulls eye is standing head to head with Edge.”

“The foo
l
!”
exclaimed
Priest.

Anvil
seized his weapon and started for the door,
“Speed
, guard the front door with Rage. Tell Patch to stay with the kid in here. The rest follow me.”

Chris heard the shouted instructions from the first floor landing. Patch was leading him towards a rear bedroom at the time and
he
quickened his pace
instead of going downstairs, he wanted to see what was going on.
Entering the
back bedroom
,
he made his way to the window. A pair of faded orange coloured curtains where drawn across the dirt stained
transom window
. Carefully he
lifted one corner of the curtains and
peered down into the garden. Light spilled out from the open kitchen door and side window, illuminating a frightening scene.

The rear walled garden of the old house once used to have two beautiful lawns, rose beds and several rows of carefully shaped shrubs amongst half a dozen Witch Hazel trees, covering nearly a third of an acre. Now it was just an overgrown jungle full of wild thorn bushes intermixed with rope like
tendrils from Blackberry and Raspberry plants. But there was still a small clearing of garden grass trampled flat by dozens of shoeless
clawed
flat
feet. Those feet belonged to Shades of different sizes and shapes,
all st
anding
hunched over, hairless, grey
,
naked,
with
slim
e
covered bodies, oozing  yellow puss from wide open fanged mouths.

Chris’s eyes nearly popped out of
his
sockets when he saw the creature that stepped out of the shadows.
Female in appearance, slender
of
body but with multi jointed
elongated arms and legs. That
t
ook
on the appearance of an obscene insect. She raised
one long talon
ed hand
to brush
away
black straight hair from out of her eyes. The gesture was
grotesquely
feminine
in nature. Chris saw that she was also bare footed, each toe end
ed
in long black talons like her
hands
.
 
Weirdly, she was dressed in an old Victorian type ballroom gown, crudely cut away at the knees. The gown itself was ripped and frayed in places. So dirty, Chris had trouble seeing what colour it had originally been. She wore a string of pearls around her slender neck.

Patch whispered
close to
his
left
ear,
her breath caused goose bumps to shimmer across his skin. H
e found
the
nearness
of her
disturbing but
in an unusually nice way
, “Jesus
that’s Edge and Claws!”

Chris guess
ed
she
’d
forgot
ten the rule
about
blaspheming,
” What?”

“The Dark Chris, the
firkin
Dark.”

Outside on the overgrown lawn,
Anvil
slowly approached to within ten feet of
the male that must be the one named Edge
,
his mighty
weapon held at the
ready.
Chris noticed that the hammer now shone with a silver hue in the dark,
it
pulsat
ed
with
raw
power. He noticed to that the one called Claws kept glancing appreh
ensively towards Anvil’s weapon as she took a few steps back, away from him.

Anvil
addressed Bulls Eye,
his voice easily reaching Chris behind the glass window,
“
M
ove out of the way.”

Bulls Eyes hands were hovering
over the grips of each of his 1880’s
Samuel C
olt
s Peacemaker
revolvers, “I can take him
Anvil
.”

Edge laughed and it wasn’t a pleasant sound. He was possibly
half
Asian
in appearance; it was hard to tell as his face appeared to be constantly in shadow. Besides
,
h
is
straight shoulder length damp black hai
r
partially covered his eyes and face. He wore
a gentleman’s dinner
suit,
including a thin black rotting bow tie. Like Claws his suit and shirt was cut and ripped in places. The shirt that must have once been white was now almost as black as his suit. Chris could just see the grips of what appeared to be swords, protruding from abo
ve
and behind
his left and right shoulder blades.

“Swords against guns?” Chris whispered,
“I
read once, don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.”

Patch gripped his shoulder, “Edge is the fastest thing ever kid. I wouldn’t go betting on Bulls Eye
,
he
may be as fast as
lightning
but Edge is quicker
and Bulls Eyes moved within range of those swords, stupid mistake
.”

Chris stared at Edge and felt something
move
inside him. What it was he had
no idea but something was wrong.
Edge
s laughter faded away to a low animal like snarl
, flicking the hair out of his eyes, he addressed
Anvil
, asking for a formal truce, ending the request with a strangely polite bow from the waist.
Anvil
again
ordered Bulls Eye to move to one side. Priest and the others
flanked
Anvil
, not moving a muscle. Slowly, reluctantly, Bulls Eye obeyed him, moving over to stand so that he could cover Claws. She blew a kiss at him. One of the Shades sprang forward as if to attack Bulls Eye. The thing was a good eight feet away from Edge and yet in the blink of an eye, he not only covered the distance but drew one of his swords so fast, it just seemed to appear in his hand. With one quick and easy sideways cut, the Shade took a staggering step forward now minus its head before exploding into falling ash.
Chris had never seen anyone but Speed move that fast.

Edge’s voice was filled with venom, “I will be obeyed!”

The rest of the Shades shuffled backwards, some groaning quietly in absolute terror. Claws merely laughed quietly and blew the falling ash away from her.

Anvil
had gone into a crouch with his hammer half raised to strike, slowly he uncoiled, “The
only
time you called for a
Truce
was
in the year 1187
.”

Edge
s blade was dripping blood that hissed like acid when it touched the grass, killing it instantly. He shook the blade once then smoothly returned it to its scabbard.

“Actually it was
May the 29
^th
1189, a very important date for us both
. Then again
I don’t expect you to remember something as trivial as that!” Edge shouted back angrily.

Anvil
still held his weapon at the ready,
but seemed to sag slightly at the shoulders,
“
I’ve put that
date
out of my mind.
Say what you want then go.”

For a second
, anger was replaced by a
sorrowful expression
that
flicker
ed
acros
s his face. Only to be replaced again with anger as Edge
sp
a
t on the grass,
directly in front of Anvils feet,
killing a patch
of grass
instantly,
“Don’t
tell me what to do
, you couldn’t then and you can’t now
!”
He raged.