Tome of Bill (Companion): Shining Fury (16 page)

I clenched my eyes shut, once again shamed by my weakness, doubly so because I knew with my power up nothing would reach me.

I was wrong.

As the barrage increased in intensity, a hand, burning hot, grasped hold of my wrist and twisted. I screamed in surprise and spun to find one of the undead had me in its grasp. Despite my aura practically melting the flesh from its bones, it was persistent.

A monstrous report joined the gunfire, and visions of the weapon Remington had used against me flashed before my eyes. Time seemed to slow.

A jolt ran through my arm like electricity. My hand seemed to open almost of its own accord, and I lost my grip on the sword. It clattered to the pavement where the glow around it died out at once. How...?

“Blessed One!”

I forced myself to focus on the immediate danger. My wrist was a charred mess, but it was about to get worse. Although its head was little more than a skull attached to a few strips of flesh at this point, the creature’s jaw was opened and it was preparing to bite into me.

No!

This was not an enemy I would lose to.

I yanked my hand back just in time. The zombie’s teeth clattered shut, missing my fingers by inches. My focus tightened until all that seemed to exist in the world was me and it. And I was not about to lose to this...

Something slammed into me from the back, driving me down on top of the burning abomination.

A voice screamed into my ear, “Get down!” a moment before a thunderous explosion of sound and heat drowned out everything else.

Though I’d managed to save my fingers, the rest of my arm wasn’t nearly as lucky. A crushing weight pushed me down atop the now burning skeleton. Its teeth, still refusing to give up, sank into my left shoulder.

That in itself was bad enough. That the creature was on fire made it far worse.

Though it felt like the very Earth itself was rumbling itself to pieces around me, I was more focused on the immediacy of my rapidly blistering skin.

Enough!

A flare of anger translated into one of power. Though the zombie had been resilient in its efforts to attack me, it could only take so much. The skeletonized remains crumbled, and the creature finally stopped struggling.

I still had the problem of something atop me, a weight much greater than a desiccated skeleton. Thankfully it lifted off me almost immediately. I rolled over, partially to beat out any parts of my clothing still smoldering, but mostly to defend myself from...

Vincent stood over me, holding out a hand. Blood ran freely down one side of his face, and he had an overall singed look about him.

“My apologies, Blessed One,” he wheezed, “but we must be quick. It’s no longer safe here.”

That was a bad joke if there ever was. It hadn’t been safe since the second we stepped foot into this city. Before I could voice that opinion, though, I realized what he meant.

With Vincent no longer protecting me, the wave of heat hit me full-on. My eyes teared up, and my lungs protested as I tried to breathe in what felt like an oven.

Behind us, where the newly arrived police cruisers had been, a wall of fire now raged. At first I thought Kelly and Veronica had really let loose, but then I saw the metal frame burning atop the remains of the cars, the tail rotor still twirling slowly. It was the police chopper that had been hounding us.

“What the hell?”

“The other witch, Meg,” Vincent explained, before stopping to cough. “I chanced a look up and saw a blast of fire engulf the helicopter from a nearby rooftop. It was quite impressive, up until it came crashing down in our direction.”

“You tried to save me.”

“I didn’t think. Had I, I’d have realized you didn’t need the...”

“It’s okay,” I said, taking his hand and pulling myself up. “I appreciate it.”

“But you’re injured because of me.”

I smiled, but left unsaid that I was actually injured because of me, because of my stupid fears. Besides, it was no matter. Burnt or bitten, I could heal myself relatively easily. My wounds, however, might be the least of our concerns.

Templar lay scattered everywhere, though whether killed or just stunned, I couldn’t immediately tell. Of far greater concern, though, were the undead still milling about. Some had been knocked down, but were even now scrambling to their feet. Even more were now aflame thanks to the burning wreckage, still shambling despite being mere shadows of their formers selves.

Sporadic gunshots came from the other direction. There was still an entire block full of enthralled and armed minions waiting to be dealt with.

We needed to regroup quickly. To do that we’d need ... there! I spotted Kelly amidst the chaos, but something was wrong. No multi-colored magic emanated from her. She was down on one knee bending over ... oh no!

I grabbed Vincent by the arm. “Help your brothers and keep your head down.” I paused for a moment before adding, “and if anything moves that isn’t one of us, don’t hesitate.”

* * *

I pulled my aura in until it was the barest of sparks against my skin. Protective though it might be, it was proving to be more of a hindrance against this particular form of undead. That it also made me an easy target to lock on, even in the middle of this war zone, was not lost upon me.

Kelly crouched protectively over Veronica, a pistol in her hands and her eyes darting in all directions. Powerless though she was, she refused to leave her friend.

All of a sudden, I felt very small and insignificant compared to her.

Despite my power, and whatever prophecies were laid at my feet, I still had to consciously keep myself from jumping if so much as a balloon popped near me. It was disgraceful.

My injuries could wait. I made my way toward them. Kelly spotted me quickly and waved me over.

I dropped to my knees next to her and began to examine Veronica. She had a nasty gash in her scalp and bruises all along one side of her face. Thankfully, despite the ugliness of her injuries, she was still breathing. That was the important thing.

“When the chopper came down, it took part of the building with it. She got pummeled by debris before we could get a proper shield up.” Kelly’s calm demeanor betrayed the worried look in her eyes. “Meg’s aim always did leave a lot to be desired.”

I nodded grimly and placed my hands upon Veronica – one on her head, the other on her chest. I’d never actually healed a witch before. Hopefully her latent power wouldn’t react with mine in a bad way.

“Templar, form ranks!”

I turned to see the remaining Templar, those still on their feet, lining up as Vincent had ordered. I’d thought maybe they were forming a defensive perimeter against the zombies. They were, but that wasn’t all they were preparing for.

“No fucking way.”

I had to echo Kelly’s sentiment. Beyond the wreckage of the two buses, the police appeared to be firing wildly, but thankfully not at us for the moment. With the helicopter gone, the rooftop bound Templar were doing what they could to pin down our foes.

However, that wasn’t what caught my eye.

Three humans, armed with black-bladed scythes in one hand and guns in the other, were strolling casually up the middle of the street toward us – seemingly unconcerned with the firefight going on around them. The one in the lead saw me staring and smiled, before raising her weapon and pointing it in my direction.

Cynthia was back, and she had a bone to pick with me.

“Whatever happened to the good old days, when people died after you blew the shit out of them?” Kelly asked with a sigh.

I’d turned away when it had happened, not wanting to see the life extinguished from Cynthia’s eyes. It never occurred to me that maybe she’d survived. “Are you sure you...?”

“Vince emptied his gun into her point blank. She should be Swiss cheese.”

I turned my focus back to Veronica. “Go help them. See if you can figure out a way to get Meg back down here.”

Kelly lowered her voice to a whisper. “Should I try, y’know, tapping you again?”

“Not yet,” I replied. “I don’t want to risk anything unexpected happening while I’m trying to heal her.”

She nodded without a word, checked the magazine in her pistol, and stood. I couldn’t help but admire her bravery. Powerless against the undead, armed marauders, and whatever the hell else was walking our way now, she nevertheless didn’t hesitate.

If I had my say in things, though, she wouldn’t be powerless for long.

I lay my hands upon Veronica again and concentrated, focusing my energy on healing – willing her wounds to mend.

A tingle from my own injuries told me the power was beginning to flow. The burns on my hand began to glow and fade, and I could feel the bite beginning to knit itself closed. Veronica’s head wound, however, continued to ooze blood.

Come on!

I felt resistance coming from within her, an incompatibility. It was different than what I’d felt when Kelly had tapped into my power. She’d accepted me willingly. I was trying to force my essence into Veronica against her conscious will.

The primal energies within her pushed back against those in me, and for a moment a struggle for dominance ensued. Veronica unconsciously gritted her teeth at what must have felt like a war being waged inside of her.

Little by little, I forced her power back, nudging it to the side as gently as I could, all the while ignoring the sounds of battle intensifying behind me ... and also hoping she didn’t explode or anything like that. This was uncharted territory for me, after all.

Just a little more.

The wound on Veronica’s head began to spark ever so slightly. I was tempted to pull back, afraid that I’d somehow end up affecting her the same way I did a vampire. Unlike them, however, she didn’t have accelerated healing to draw upon to compensate for battlefield injuries. She needed me.

Finally, just when I was about to give up, the flow of blood slowed and began to scab over. Had she been a regular person, she’d have been back on her feet by now, but I was happy enough to see what progress I was making.

The inner struggle against my intrusion became more pronounced which gave me the impression she was getting stronger. That was a good sign. Now if I could just bring her back to consciousness, then she and Kelly could recharge each other’s batteries.

Unfortunately time, even so small of a span as I needed, was no longer a luxury I had.

* * *

The cries behind me changed in the space of a second from those of defiance to ones of fear and pain.

A sound, like a side of beef being clubbed with a baseball bat, rang out, and my instincts screamed for me to duck. I looked up just in time to see the body of one of the Templar flying past me and into the fiery wreckage that continued to burn several yards beyond.

Damn it!

I had no choice but to disengage from Veronica. I’d done what I needed to. With any luck, she’d wake up on her own. Sadly, it couldn’t be soon enough from the look of things.

Vincent had apparently deemed the zombies the bigger threat and had dispatched only a couple of his men to deal with Cynthia’s group. It had been a mistake. Aside from the one they’d just killed, another Templar was down and unmoving. A third was on his knees, obviously injured. Before I could so much as shout a warning, the man on Cynthia’s left lifted his gun and shot the hapless knight in the face.

He then turned toward the unconscious Templar and raised the wicked looking scythe above his head.

I was on the move before I even realized it, something deep inside of me sparking to life and taking over. Though my instincts as an Icon weren’t always to be trusted, there were times when it was best to let them do their thing.

I slipped past the line of Templar defenders easily, dive-rolling between two who were otherwise occupied with the remaining zombies. For a moment, the battle appeared to be almost in slow motion, but it was my senses focusing laser-like on the knight about to be bisected by one of those cursed weapons.

With another roll, I was back on my feet and kicking out. The gun flew from the assailant’s grasp, but I barely registered it as I spun around to his backside and grabbed hold of the arm about to bring down the scythe.

I used his own momentum against him to redirect the swing to the side, missing the Templar, and then slammed the flat of my free hand into the back of his elbow with enough power to shatter the joint.

Except it didn’t. The strike should have incapacitated him, left him on the ground howling in pain. Instead, his arm remained whole while the reverberation of the blow traveled up my own.

He casually turned his head toward me and smiled as if I’d just blown him a kiss rather than tried to break his arm.

By now, the other Templar were registering something was amiss. They halved their already inadequate defense against the undead and moved against these newcomers.

The man I’d attacked glanced their way, then gave me a shove. It seemed as if he put the barest of efforts into it, yet it felt like being hit by a bulldozer.

My aura flared up around me just in time, and for a moment, I thought I saw his skin spark. But then I was stumbling backward, nearly losing my footing until I was stopped by a burning pain that lanced through my back.

I didn’t need to turn to know what had happened, which was useful because right then I couldn’t do much more than scream. My aura had been up, yet it hadn’t given the slightest resistance against the attack.

It was those damned black-bladed weapons, and I’d just done our attackers the favor of impaling myself on one.

Perhaps it was the severity of the wound itself, or perhaps I’d become something of a stranger to pain. Whatever the case, I cried out in agony as the edge of the weapon sliced through the meat of my shoulder blade like it was butter.

A true hero would have summoned the strength to step forward and free themselves from its bite, but in that moment I was frozen in place as nerves I didn’t even know I had lit up like a Christmas tree.

Then it was gone. The blade, that is. The pain stayed, and I could feel my entire backside growing sticky with blood.