Storykiller (47 page)

“I think you’ll find that is untrue,” Fenris said, stalking closer to the stage. “I have been working beside her and she is—preternaturally talented, even for a Scion.”

“And you’ve known many Scions have you?”

“Known? No. But I have killed more than my share,” Fenris said, looking directly at Tessa who looked back at him, wide-eyed. She was struck by the distinct feeling that he was, as he always seemed to be, telling the truth. Tessa felt sick to her stomach and feared she might throw up. She turned her head away from both of them and clenched her eyes shut trying to ratchet down her fear.

“Truly?” The Monster said, impressed.

Fenris nodded and looked away from Tessa and
back to The Monster. “This girl will be the end of you, Monster. Retire now and fight with me another day.”

The Monster seemed to consider it but then shook his head. “No. The offer is tempting, Wolf, you are ever the silver-tongued beast of legend, but I’ll have my will done, and I will have it now.”

“Have it your way, though it will be the death of you.”

“Indeed,” The Monster said, turning to Tessa and staring at her. “We shall see.” And Tessa watched as Fenris shifted back into his massive Wolf form and left.

He actually left her.

She couldn’t believe it.

The Monster nodded his head to Dr. Frankenstein
. “Do it,” he said and Tessa turned to see The Doctor throw the switch on the machine forward.

Robin, Tal, and Hecuba were overwhelmed.

Fenris, who had been brilliant, even in Robin’s estimation, sometimes literally tearing through the opposition, had of course disappeared. And with his absence the battle had shifted. Brand had escaped with Snow, as planned, but Micah was in distress and Grey was needed to protect her, so they were already down in numbers. Fenris’s absence had simply tipped the scales too far. Tal cried out as she saw Hecuba suddenly buried by dog-creatures, and the terror in her voice was palpable. She ran to Hecuba’s aid, leaving Robin alone near the tent. The creatures saw opportunity in it and instantly overran him. They grabbed at him, clawing and pulling him down.

And at that very moment, an unholy scream erupted from the tent, tearing through the air.

The scream was Tessa, and
the creatures everywhere seemed to smile.

“Tessa!” Robin shouted, pushing toward the tent, straining valiantly but pointlessly against the wall of creatures. With nobody to left to help, he was buried under them and Tessa was left to scream.

Brand’s hands, now burning from the cold of the river, from holding Snow under the water, were starting to look blue. He hoped he was imagining it, but he doubted it. And then Snow’s eyes snapped open and she smiled as her face broke through the surface of the water.

“Brilliant boy,” she purred, and reached out an icy hand to touch his face. Brand helped Snow out of the river, her skin now a crystalline white and almost frosty. She perched on the edge of a small boulder and pushed some hair from her face. Brand shed his burned up jacket and handed it to her, averting his eyes diplomatically. Snow looked down at her mostly naked body, her once elegant dress in tatters, and smiled at Brand as she took the jacket.

“Thank you,” she said, putting it on and then clutching it closed with one hand.

“Are you all right?” he asked, hovering around her. Snow nodded and reached for his exposed arms. He watched as she laid her hands on his burns, soothing them. Both the pain of the burns and the redness receded
like magic.

“I am fine,” she said, her voice back to its even, almost bored tone. Brand looked back toward the battle. He had heard screaming,
which he didn’t think was a good thing.

“We have to go back,” he said.

Snow shook her head. “No,” she said. “I told the Scion that I was out after that stunt. She knew it and she agreed.”

“But you’re okay, you just said,” Brand argued.

“I have fulfilled my obligation, Brandon,” Snow said flatly, wringing out her hair.

“Snow. Please come with me. What can I do? Talk at them? I’m borderline useless in a fight, good maybe only for getting killed. You have real power,
you could be the difference here. Please,” Brand said, his voice plaintive but passionate. Snow looked up at him for a long moment and then stood.

“I do this for
you
, Brandon Ellis,” she said, staring at him, her big blue eyes unblinking. Brand pulled back, the power of her gaze intimidating, intoxicating.

He reached out his hand to her and she took it.

Grey watched Jeff run at the Franken-dogs, and as the creature ran he shifted effortlessly from the grey housecat into a massive tiger, roaring wildly as he did so. The dogs, less dumb than they seemed, skidded to a halt and tried to reverse course, but it was too late. Jeff jumped on one, and they rolled together, a pile of orange and black, flashes of white. The second dog jumped into the mix and Jeff bellowed as it bit into his shoulder. While Jeff wrestled with the creatures, Grey located the vial and held it under Micah’s nose. He waved it there for a few moments with no effect and then her eyes snapped open, big and dark and somewhat horrified.

“Jeff!” she shouted, panicked, sitting up and looking at the Shiki as it fought the dogs less than a dozen yards
from where she and Grey huddled.

As Dr. Frankenstein threw the switch on the machine, a searing pain tore through Tessa and the scream she had told herself The Monster would not get from her escaped her throat at a decibel she thought impossible. Her thoughts swam and her vision blurred, and all around her an orange glow fanned out, bathing the room in pale amber light. It took only moments for it to drift over the crowd. Even through her tears, Tessa could see her classmates changing. Bits of them fusing to their costumes, some of them fusing to one another. As the light poured over them, they undulated, transforming into something horrible and mindless.

The Monster watched, not with any kind of glee but more a clinical eye. Tessa’s mind raced, but it was hard for it to land on anything except pain. She closed her eyes and begged her throat, her mouth, to be still, to be quiet. After a moment she was able to be silent, her teeth grinding together in pain. The Monster looked at her, one stitched eyebrow raised with vague interest.

“Impressive, Scion,” he said. “Both what you hold and that you’ve managed to stop screaming.
I’ve not seen that before.”

In her peripheral vision, Tessa saw a greenish brown figure that could only be her damn Troll, but her brain was too consumed by pain to understand what it meant. She heard a shout, and then The Troll threw something at the stage. Tessa felt a small impact followed by the slightest give in the right cuff restraining her arm. Whatever The Troll had done, it had loosened the restraint. The Monster roared at The Troll, easily as confused as Tessa was, and The Troll escaped through the side of the tent, leaving a Troll-sized hole in the fabric, like a cartoon.

Tessa pressed her eyes closed and concentrated with everything she had. “LA COLOMBE NOIRE!” she screamed, her voice ripping at the air. The Monster blinked at her, as the crackle and pop of The Black Dove bathed the room in blue for just an instant. The axe snapped into her hand and Tessa squinted her eyes, sending all her remaining strength to her right arm. She wrenched her wrist free of the cuff in one horrible yank. In that same movement, she hurled the axe at The Monster. It landed in his chest with such force that it sent him stumbling backwards. He blinked at it, sticking out of him for just a moment before it disappeared, and then he fell backwards off the stage.

Dr. Frankenstein leapt to his feet and turned off the machine. Tessa nearly fell out of it, she was so weak. She felt like passing out as he un-cuffed her left arm, but as she looked at her classmates on the ground, a cold fear gripped her. It was too late for many of them, already transformed and strangely inhuman. They were now some abominable blend of science and magic, Mortal and Story that Tessa couldn’t even understand.

The new creatures started to move, undulating like a living, monstrous carpet. As Tessa tried to stand, her legs gave out. Even if she could fight them she didn’t know if she should, they had been human and innocent mere moments ago.

Tessa looked at Dr. Frankenstein who also stared at the crowd in shock, horrified and guilty. Tessa turned to him. “Can you reverse it?”

“What?”

“Can you change the machine to reverse it?”

The Doctor looked down stupidly at the machine, “Yes. But—”

“But what?!” Tessa demanded.

“But it will still have to be powered by…something,” he said, casting his eyes to the side. Tessa got up the rest of the way.

“I know,” she said, climbing back into the machine. “Just do it.”

The Doctor leaned over the machine, adjusting levers and wires.

“You’ve got to strap me in, otherwise, I don’t think I can stay still.” Tessa warned, looking at the restraints.

“Are you sure about this, Scion?”

“There’s no other way. Just do it, or all these people are going to die.”

Dr. Frankenstein leaned down and locked in her feet and then her left arm. T
he right cuff was broken, so she’d have to leave the one arm free.

“Hurry.” Tessa said, unable to take her eyes off her inhuman classmates.

The Doctor looked up at her, his eyes wild. “It’s ready,” he said.

“Then do it,” she said.

The same pain ripped through Tessa, and she was a second time unable to resist screaming. A bluish light poured out of the machine this time, rolling over the frozen crowd. Seconds turned into agonizing minutes, and Tessa managed to swallow some of her screams.

Tessa squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. And then the pain stopped. As quickly as it had begun. Tessa opened her eyes to see The Monster standing above her, his gaze drifting across the crowd as it returned to normal again, falling into little unconscious, but human, piles.

“What have you done, father?” he asked, his voice cold and sad, defeated. Tessa reached over and unlocked her left hand with her right and then called her axe and chopped at both leg braces, hoping she didn’t miss and chop off her own damn foot. She stepped out of the machine, placing herself between The Monster and Dr. Frankenstein.