Blackthorne (The Brotherhood of the Gate Book 1) (28 page)

“Stay on the path, I’ve wired a few things. I hate to set them off but accidents do happen.”

Houston grinned and shook his head as he followed the survivalist into the fenced yard, being careful to stay on the flagstone path.

The large barn behind the house had been repaired and painted red with white trim…complete with the traditional hex symbols. The barn’s doors were closed, Houston hoped, because the Tennessee redneck had the kind of equipment he might need in the building. It would save some time if things went badly.

Another deep bark interrupted his train of thought and he looked up in time to see Rhi’s bloodhound standing inside the house on the couch that backed up to the picture window. Ellie Mae was baying at them for all she was worth, her cable tail wagging wildly to and fro. Rhi had told him earlier in the day that Bobby Wayne had begun to stop by her house to help care for her dog and had taken the hound out to wander in the last few days. It now seemed that her helpful neighbor had other reasons for befriending the dog.

Bobby Wayne was dressed in a full set of gray and white winter battle fatigues. He nervously stood in the door before going far enough into his home to allow Houston in behind him. Houston had never seen the other man so rattled. Bobby Wayne had had contact with the demons the dark Blackthorne brother had called up. He’d probably been guarding the mountain against them and hunting them with Ellie Mae. The fact that the creatures he was guarding the mountain against avoided stepping foot inside the perimeters Pearl set was probably making the man more nervous than the actual creatures.

The corner of the kitchen table visible off to Houston’s left was loaded down with armaments, including what looked suspiciously like claymore mines, grenades and cold weather gear. An M16 was leaning against a cabinet and boxes of ammunition were scattered everywhere.

“Looks like you’re doing some hunting here, Bobby Wayne.” Houston craned his neck to look around the taller man’s shoulder. A Mark 19 grenade launcher lay on the spotless tile of the kitchen floor next to the table. “What are you trolling for…a Tyrannosaurus Rex?”

The silver burr haircut twitched slightly. “I think you know exactly what I’m hunting for…nothing runs in these woods without me knowing about it. I’m going to find out where these things are escaping from and blow the place to kingdom come.”

Houston put on his wisest smile for the slightly mad man in front of him. “These things aren’t escaping from a government lab, if that’s what you think, Bobby Wayne. But I can tell you about them. I can include you on the hunt if it becomes necessary. We might be able to make this all go away without a shot fired. But then again, I believe in being prepared and I have some ideas about altering our weapons to take these ‘critters’ out if we need to. And let’s be honest. Only you and I are nutty enough to believe any of this is going on right now.”

Bobby Wayne considered that for a moment as Ellie Mae made her way around him, a golden shadow, to jump up and place her paws on Houston’s chest. The dog began to lick his face enthusiastically. “Well, if the damned dog likes you, I guess I can at least listen to what you have to say. Tell me what’s going on, Houston, and what it has to do with that little girl down the holler.”

Houston surveyed the kitchen that had been converted into a war room. Tacked on to every open wall space were topographical maps, and weapons of every shape and size were scattered on the kitchen counters. The sink had a stinking pile of what looked like dried black elephant droppings in it. His eyebrows and opinion of the survivalist went up a notch. Dragon shit? Bobby Wayne might be very useful. “That little girl has the fate of this town and possibly the world riding on her shoulders. And the Armageddon scenario you’ve been preparing for? It’s here. After we go unload some jugs of water I picked up in town, I could still use that coffee.” Nothing like holding back. He only hoped the guy’s mind could take the strain.

After carefully sitting his gun down, butt first, onto the floor and leaning it against the wall, Bobby Wayne Bedford snapped to attention. He seemed to have no questions. That told Houston the man was unbalanced for sure. “Coors is in the fridge and the coffee pot is full of fresh brew, neighbor. Help yourself…then we’ll go look at my surplus. I’m ready.”

Of that the other man had no doubt.

Suddenly Bobby Wayne decided that he did have a question. “Why are we unloading jugs of water?”

Houston grinned. “Because it is a type of water that will bring us great comfort in our time of need. Plus, I strongly suspect that it will have an interesting effect on our ammunition when it is used on those ‘critters’ of yours.”

A beam of comprehension fluttered across the other man’s face that then turned to admiration and awe.

“If the
type
of water you have in the truck does something nasty to those things down the hill…then they’re not escaped lab experiments, are they?”

“No, Bobby Wayne, they are not, unfortunately.”

»»•««

Losing oneself in the flow of the cards was a form of meditation for Rhiannon Brennan. The smooth texture of the fresh decks slid between her experienced hands, the red designs on the backs of the cards winking at her tired eyes in the flashing lights of the nearby slot machines. It felt bizarre going into her pedestrian job this night of all nights. But preparing to flee with demons of Hell hot on her trail was at the top range of her stress meter. She needed to not give anyone a clue she was about to make a run for it. Plus the petty habits of life kept her sanity intact at the moment.

I wonder how hot the fires of Hell are? I’m going to lose my mind. Shuffle a bit more…

She managed a glance at the small face of the watch on her right wrist. 11:30. Pam would waltz through the door of the casino at any moment after she had finagled or conned an early out off her shift at her second job in one of the casinos down the street. With the early morning drive to the larger city down the mountain looming in front of them and several nights of bizarre socializing behind them, they most likely needed to eat a quick bite with no alcohol before the ride home…and run over a monster or two on the way to their respective houses.

I’ll never see him again.
Rhi felt another shaft of pain as the thought raced through her head for the thousandth time that evening.
Focus.

She expertly cut her decks into four piles and alternated shuffling them while managing to smile and chat inanely with her customers. It was an effort to keep from wincing every time a shadow fell through the glass of the night-darkened front door of the casino. There was a sense of irresponsibility, standing in the blackjack pit dealing hand after hand when night terrors and monsters roamed the darkness hovering over her town.

She brushed her hair back over one shoulder after clearing her hands for the camera and did a double take. Blackthorne had reverently run his scarred hands over her hair repeatedly the night before, as if he had waited a more than a century to touch her again. This memory also brought sharp pain and she tried to shake it off with a toss of her head. Strands of hair and bitter pieces of thought stirred around her face, blown about by the warm flow of the air curtain in front of the opened casino doors.

»»•««

After work, the stroll up the street with Pam to the parking lot was more intimidating than usual, but then, walking anywhere in the darkened haunted town was pretty intimidating at that point.

Rhi tried to concentrate on Pam’s prattle and ignore her need to stay inside where lights and people gave her the illusion of safety.

“Let’s talk about this sex phobia of yours. You’ve got to promise me you won’t wait another few years before you have sex again, Rhi,” Pam urged.

Rhi’s eyebrows rose an inch. “I am about to go on the run from a horde of demons and you are worried about me getting laid?”

“I won’t be around to nag you about it,” the other woman replied. They walked past the parking lot guardhouse, which was empty. The penny-pinching casino owners had given up paying for security in the employee lots almost as soon as the casinos opened. “I mean let’s face it, you were a eunuch until I talked you into doing Blackthorne.”

“You did
not
talk me in to doing anyone. And I’m not a eunuch.”

“Okay, before doing the delicious immortal ex-hubby the last night, when was the last time you had sex,” asked Pam shamelessly.

Rhi glared at her friend. “I rented a Johnny Depp movie five nights ago.”

“I’ve got news for you, girlfriend, that doesn’t qualify as getting laid.”

“It does at my house.” She broke off the forced banter as they headed out to the lot across the street. She shifted her gym bag to her right hand, gauging the weight of the bag for possible use as a weapon.

“Run.” The form of Blackthorne appeared at the end of the lot, his sword in hand, his entire form glowing with blue light. He started to sprint toward them, moving with unearthly grace and speed.

A shadow much larger than the man darted down from a nearby rooftop. In the light of the streetlamps Rhi could see at first only a great black wing, the length of which rivaled the wing of one of the F-15’s Houston used to fly.

Taking care not to touch the blue fire nimbus that surrounded the knight, the dragon Manius had called up from its place of rest in the mountains flew in a graceful arch in front of Blackthorne toward where the two women, still stiff with terror, stood.

The creature was both hideous and heartbreakingly beautiful. In spite of its size, it was also as graceful as a swallow of jet-sized proportions. Pam pushed Rhi to the ground and fell on top of her. The beast swooped over them both and away toward the west. The smell of brimstone lingered in the its wake.

Through a mouthful of snow, Rhi broke the silence of the moment. “These people are starting to piss me off.”

The side of her face ground into the sharp bite of ice. It had been one of those days.

Pam stood up and brushed the dirty parking lot snow from her coat with trembling hands before composing herself enough to reach down to try to frantically pull Rhi upright. “We gotta get out of here,” she ground out through clenched teeth. Blackthorne joined her and together they pulled Rhi to the safety of the blue Blazer.

“Is that thing coming back?” she asked Rhi.

“No…he’s not going to kill me until he has what he wants. Think he just wants to remind me he is here,” Rhi said, rubbing the side of her face that was raw from being dragged over snow. She was getting tired of people pushing her.

“Thanks for the shove by the way.”

“Don’t mention it.” Pam managed to give her a weary smirk as Rhi searched her coat pockets for the truck keys. She addressed Blackthorne, “I very seriously doubt Rhi wanted to see your face tonight, dude. You’re going to have to let her go.”

“You do realize you cannot run away from this war? That it will only follow you and be more destructive as time goes on?” Blackthorne’s voice was a whisper as he held open the driver’s side door. Rhi’s heart was going like the wheel of a top fuel dragster.

“Did you know for certain that letting your brother loose was what should be done? Did you know that loving me would tangle me up in this war in the first place?” Rhi angrily got into the truck and buckled herself in. “I’m no queen of denial. I will do whatever I think is best, and personally, I trust myself more than I do you. Now get lost.”

Rhi shoved him back from the truck to slam the door shut, cutting herself off from his touch. Pam was already in the trucks and buckled in on the passenger’s side.

“No one has dared to shove me in four hundred years,” Blackthorne snapped, his sword still drawn and at his side.

At some point in the conversation, Pam had retrieved her huge pistol from her purse. She leaned over Rhi to point the barrel at him. “Houston and I have a theory that the demon blood that gives you power wouldn’t like bullets dipped in holy water…wanna be my first experiment?”

He stepped back and Rhi took the opportunity to start the truck and pull away.

Behind her sirens once again rang out into the Cripple Creek night as Blackthorne took to the air.

»»•««

Rhi listened to the rattle of her vehicle as she swung it past the graveyard at Mach speed.

“Was it a dream?” Her voice was a hopeful rasp in the dimness of the truck’s interior.

Pam slumped nearby in the passenger’s seat, her gun in her lap. Her tired, honest eyes met Rhi’s.

“No.”

Rhi rubbed the bridge of her nose for a moment and glanced at her friend. “Manius is never going to leave me alone, is he?” She felt a tear roll down her face but she did not let them go. The tears she owed Jack Blackthorne she would painfully keep holding in until she watched the sunset from the pier in Key West.

“You haven’t taken off yet, Rhi. Give the plan a chance,” the other woman replied as Rhi steered into the driveway of the second A-frame on the hill. “I’ll be back to get you in about an hour, so pack quick. I’m going to go feed my menagerie and check on Nate. Hopefully he isn’t sleeping in the barn again, I’d like to talk to him and it’s cold as shit out there.”

Rhi assured Pam that she could handle being alone for a while. “I’ll only need a few things. Go check on Nate. I’ll be ready when you get back.”

“It’ll all be as you left it for when you come back, Rhi. I promise,” Pam quietly said as the smaller woman climbed out of the Blazer and went into her house.

She didn’t offer a reply. Neither of them truly believed that she would ever make it back to Cripple Creek.

»»•««

In the silver hours of dawn, Rhi watched the red walls of Ute Pass fly past the Blazer. Ellie Mae ignored the passing scenery for once. Instead, the dog had decided to stand in the backseat and lay her huge skull on Rhi’s shoulder as her mistress maneuvered the vehicle back and forth through twists and hairpin turns of the pass.

“Dog, you do know that your head weighs about as much as a sack of cement,” Rhi told the animal as she downshifted to compensate for the extreme slope of the pass. The dog grumbled in reply and nuzzled Rhi’s hair. “And now my hair’s going to be full of doggie slobber.”