Tome of Bill (Companion): Shining Fury (21 page)

“We’re not here to fight unless you make us,” I said.

Again no response.

Finally, I reached down and grabbed hold of his hair to force him to face me. I expected him to bare his fangs, maybe even attack. Instead he stared slack-jawed ahead, his eyes so clouded over that I was certain he didn’t even see me. I confirmed this by snapping the fingers of my free hand in front of his eyes. He didn’t flinch or give any other acknowledgement.

“He looks stoned,” Meg said.

“Compelled,” I corrected. “Really heavily, it would seem.”

“Can you break it?”

“I would caution us not to,” one of the Templar said. “What if it raises the alarm?”

“I don’t see an alarm, nor anyone to raise it to,” I replied. “As for snapping him out of it...” I’d seen vampiric compulsions in person, including a few by Bill. The thought brought him back to the forefront of my mind. We still had no idea where he and the others were or whether they were safe.

Despite the threat of Vehron, that was our first priority. “We don’t have time for this. Leave him.” I stood and turned to lead us away.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

I thought Kelly’s voice was directed at me, but a moment later a flash of light registered in my periphery. I spun in time to see the vampire’s form immolate from the inside out. One of the Templar stood above his remains, his sword sticking into the floor where the vampire had been moments earlier.

“Stand down,” Vincent ordered.

“It is what we do. It is what the Lord commands,” the knight argued.

Stunned silence descended for a moment, but then I strode toward him, pushing past everyone in my way.

“Blessed...”

I cut off the Templar, grabbing him by the collar of his cape and dragging him toward me until we were eye to eye. “Why did you do that?”

“They are the enemies of decency.”

“He was helpless. No threat to us.”

“He was a beast. No more.”

My power flared up in anger, in no small part due to the warrior half of me wanting to agree with him. Sparkles of light flashed all around me as the remains of the vampire were burnt away to nothing in its fury.

The Templar’s eyes opened wide. Though my power was harmless to him, I had little doubt it looked impressive as all hell. “You think they’re animals, do you? Maybe you should try looking in the mirror for a change.”

I let the Templar go and pointed a finger in his face. “Nobody does anything without my say so going forward. Is that...”

A hand grasped my arm. “Sheila...”

I spun toward Meg, my aura flaring in annoyance. “I’m serious. Unless something attacks us first, we are better than this. Nobody is to...”

“Listen.”

“What?”

“I said shut up and listen.”

I narrowed my eyes at her for a moment, but that’s when I realized the silence that seemed to permeate this place wasn’t as absolute here as I’d thought.

The creaks and groans of fatigued metal could be heard, as well as the shifting of rubble. Whatever had happened here had been recent, perhaps within the hour. Then I heard it ... voices. “There’s someone else down here.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Meg replied with a sly grin.

Though the words were too faint to make out, there was definitely life ahead, although whether they were survivors or the perpetrators of this calamity, I had no way of knowing. But I intended to find out. “Follow me. Stay close and stay quiet.”

“I wasn’t the one yelling just a...”

“Not now, Meg.”

Kelly chuckled softly, no doubt enjoying seeing her friend knocked down a peg, but I was already on the move by then. “Flashlights down and auras to a bare minimum,” I whispered behind me, doing the same. Whether it was anticipation of combat or nervousness of who we might find waiting ahead, it took me more effort than I thought it would, but at last my power obeyed and faded out.

Though the corridor was a mess, it was still passable. Thankfully, we didn’t have far to go. Double doors, twisted and bent, stood before us partially opened. A thick plume of dust hung in the air, seemingly coming from within.

I held up a hand for the others to stop. Voices, much clearer now, were coming from inside.

“That statue down there. It was her, wasn’t it?”

Though the words didn’t mean anything to me, they didn’t need to. It was Bill. He was alive! A mix of both excitement and trepidation raced through me, causing my pulse to increase. Somewhere deep inside of my head, the warrior let out a growl of anger.
Oh no you don’t!
I grasped onto the positive feelings, forcing the rest back down, and was about to step forward when someone else spoke from up ahead.

“What are you talking about, Freewill?”

I knew that voice.

It was Alexander, the vampire leader and the bastard who had set all of this in motion. What was he doing here? Had he been captured? Or was this some double cross on his part?

I tiptoed closer to the door to see if I could learn more.

“I am not in the habit of tolerating insolence,” Alexander continued. “Now would be a particularly bad time to test my resolve. I would highly suggest you...” A hand fell on my shoulder and I let out a whoop of surprise, so intent was I on listening.

I glanced back and found it was Kelly. She smiled sheepishly and whispered, “Sorry.”

The jig was up. With Alexander’s level of power, there was no doubt he’d heard us. We had little choice now but to meet this head on.

“Lock and load,” I whispered, bringing my aura to bear. I pushed on the doors ahead of me. They squealed in protest, but opened enough to let us pass.

Answers lay within, but first we needed to make sure our friends were okay.

And if they weren’t, then Lord help anyone, vampire or otherwise, who stood in my way.

The next hour was a whirlwind, but not in the way I’d expected.

I’d been poised for a fight, ready to face The Destroyer and my destiny – the final battle between Icon and Night Spawn to determine the fate of humanity – be it freedom or an eternity of darkness.

Instead, I’d learned that The Destroyer was already dead by Bill’s hand. However, that wasn’t the only surprise. It turned out he’d merely been an errand boy, a servant. The true power behind the throne was Ib the First – the original vampire, a creature thousands of years old and yet somehow living under the nose of the First Coven all this time.

They hadn’t been the only ones fooled, though. Some months back, Bill had mentioned the name Calibra, Ib’s assumed identity, to me. It had seemed familiar, but I’d dismissed it at the time.

It was only now, huddled with Bernadette and Vincent, that I realized my mistake. Though the vampire nation had assumed her destroyed all these millennia, the Templar’s archives made mention of her possible survival. I’d seen them myself, a myth about an ancient evil with many names – Khal, Ibris, Calibrea and more. The Talmud called her Lilith, the first demon, but all of them ultimately referred to the same being.

Had I been paying better attention, I could have warned Bill. He could have warned the others.

But I hadn’t. And now she had revealed herself, dropped all pretense of hiding in the shadows. Though it wasn’t clear what her plans were, it didn’t really matter. She had kidnapped Ed and had taken many more – including members of the vampiric First Coven as prisoners. In the end, we’d been forced to make a deal with the devil himself, Alexander, to create a temporary alliance so as to track her down, end her threat, and rescue those we could.

“She is a demon of infinite dark magic,” Bernadette said.

“She’s a vampire,” I replied. “Older than the rest, but...”

“No! There’s more. Yes, she is older and stronger than any other, but it’s said that is only one of her guises. According to the tales, she can summon demons from Hell itself.”

“Listen to her, Blessed One,” Vincent said.

“It’s just myth and legend,” I argued.

“How do you explain away the destruction down below?”

Bernadette had a point. The Prefect’s area had been torn to shreds. It looked more like an explosion had hit that place rather than vampires duking it out. Still, the obvious answer to that was actual explosives. This complex was testament to the fact that the vampire nation wasn’t quite as archaic as portrayed in the movies.

But then I remembered the Jahabich. If there were creatures that could be said to rise up from the bowels of Hell, they sure as heck fit the bill. There was also the question of why they’d allied themselves with The Destroyer. If this Calibra could do as Bernadette said, then that could be a possible answer.

Still, it seemed too easy. I wasn’t quite ready to accept it, to attribute near godlike powers to this vampire. That seemed to be adding more than was necessary to our plate.

And mine was currently fuller than I wanted it to be, all because of a different vampire.

* * *

Power was still spotty in the facility, but at least the lights were back on. Though it made me nervous to be in a den of creatures who considered me their blood enemy, I felt better knowing Alexander had departed following the declaration of our temporary truce. Apparently the high and mighty jerk was too good to lend a hand in securing this facility, and secured it soon would be. He’d let it be known in no uncertain terms that a team had been dispatched to ensure this complex was back under his people’s management. That meant it was going to be time to leave soon.

Despite his assurances, I had the feeling we’d simply cleaned out one vipers’ nest only to make way for the original snakes to take up residence again.

This and more weighed on my mind as I headed upstairs to convey some potential scrying suggestions to Meg, Kelly, and Veronica. Christy had asked me to pass on this information while she stayed below searching for clues with the others.

Therein lay my guilt. Our group wasn’t whole. Though Sally’s memories had somehow been restored, it seemed that was the sole victory we could claim. Ed had been kidnapped. Christy looked absolutely exhausted. And, worst of all, her fiancé Tom had been killed and his soul somehow trapped in a child’s toy, of all things.

I couldn’t help but wonder if it all would have turned out differently had I not fled following my brief aborted tryst with Bill. Maybe, but then Kelly, Vincent, and the others might not be alive now. Of course, it’s entirely possible they wouldn’t have faced the danger they had if I’d not been there. Some defender of humanity I’d turned out to be. The bulk of the danger had been dealt with in my absence while all I’d done was face down some minions, minions that I hadn’t even been able to finish off.

“Hey.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. I’d been so caught up in my darkening thoughts that I hadn’t noticed
him
approaching.

“Hey yourself,” I lamely countered, feeling my cheeks begin to flush and desperately willing them not to.

“That was some awesome timing you guys had back there.”

I smiled. “Funny how that worked out. Believe me, it wasn’t planned.”

“I can live with the occasional happy coincidence.” Bill was talking amiably enough, but something was wrong. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I could have sworn his voice carried a cadence of distance to it.

I wanted to apologize again, for so many things, but the words escaped me. Instead, I simply replied, “I’m not sure it was.”

“What do you mean?”

I lowered my eyes as the familiar feelings again rose up in me. One part of me wished to be with him while the other conflicting desire screamed to destroy him. “Seems we’ve had an awful lot of coincidences lately, happy or otherwise.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that, too.”

“It’s almost like fate has...”

He held up a hand and laughed. “Let’s not get started with the F word again.”

I nodded, wanting to say more, but was afraid ... mostly that I wouldn’t be able to control myself once I started talking, although how that would manifest itself I couldn’t tell. The silence stretched out for several seconds, until I finally tried to change the subject. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

“Which one?”

“All of them. We’ll save them. I promise you that.”

He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. I hadn’t been wrong. He was the same person as when last I’d seen him, yet not. There was a coolness about him now, although whether toward me or because of what he’d seen, I couldn’t know. “Hopefully,” he replied. “So far, I’ve been batting zero in that dugout. I mean, my D&D group and I weren’t what I’d call close, but they deserved better.”

“It sounds to me like you tried.”

He let out a pained sigh. “Not hard enough. There’s nothing else I can do for them, but we can still save Ed. As for Tom...”

“That’s just a
little
weird,” I replied, hoping to add a little levity, before realizing how stupid and insensitive that was. “No pun intended.”

“You can say that again.”

“Do you think we can ... fix him?”

He was silent for a few moments, his eyes, usually so cheerful, now unreadable.

It broke my heart a little to see him like this. Barely realizing I was doing so, I placed a hand on his shoulder. For a moment, I felt the surge of energy inside of me, the hungry desire to stamp out creatures like him. No! I was in charge, not the power. “We’ll find a way,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to sound casual while a war was fought inside of me.

“Will we?” he asked, catching me off guard.

“For now, let’s just concentrate on the task at hand. How’s that sound?” Ugh! What was wrong with me? He was obviously talking about his friend, and I’d just spouted off like this was some teen angst drama on the CW.

“Probably a smart idea.” There was no mistaking his tone ... rejection. I felt slapped in the mouth as surely as with any hand. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, though. The other vampire, Sally, I’d known something had changed between them, but hadn’t wanted to dwell on it. Why would I? There was no contest between us. She was model gorgeous, sharp witted, powerful, and sure of herself in the way I was supposed to be but wasn’t. Most of all, she was whole again. One could almost feel the weight lifted off of Bill’s shoulders when he’d said that she’d gotten her memories back.