Blackthorne (The Brotherhood of the Gate Book 1) (29 page)

“What do you expect? That dog is a nothing more than a pony-sized spit factory.” Pam sprawled in the backseat, her body twisted around so she could survey the contents of large wooden case in the cargo area Bobby Wayne had presented to Rhi before they drove down Horse Thief Gulch. The survivalist and Houston rode behind the Blazer in Houston’s battered crew cab pickup. Nate, still looking wild eyed after recounting a shortened version of the events of the snowmobile race, had opted to remain at Pam’s house. Rhi knew Pam had offered her a watered down version of his story. There was already enough guilt riding her shoulders to weigh down a barge, she didn’t need or want to hear about the slaughter at the snowmobile party. Strangely, the local media had been reticent about the incident, simply stating that an explosion, possibly of snowmobile fuel canisters, had claimed the lives of a group of friends out partying the other night. Rhi suspected the hands of Pearl and the Brotherhood were guiding the thoughts of the more inquisitive reporters to other matters that were less dangerous.

“Look at this stuff. You’ve got your guns, bullets, an itty-bitty girl-sized bullet proof vest, grenades of all shapes and sizes, hand-written instructions so even a girlie blackjack dealer can use the damned things…and what looks like a genuine Confederate States of America Calvary saber.” She picked up the scabbard to expose several inches of the blade inside. She tested the edge with one callused thumb. “And it’s sharp. Deadly sharp. I wonder where he picked up
this
antique. It’s probably worth a fortune. Look, the tassels are still on the hilt.”

Rhi sighed. “I told him that I couldn’t take his sword and he said that it was okay, he had four others. You might want to reconsider dating Bobby Wayne, Pam. I think he might be secretly stinking rich. I would mail it back to you to give to him at some point but I’m afraid he’s right—I might need it. Hell, I might need all of this stuff. And you seem to be a lot happier about using it than I am.”

The other woman hefted a clip in one hand to load the nine-millimeter she had freed from its case. “All I know is that someone is letting me play with explosives and I finally get to use the phrase, ‘Holy hand grenade’ and mean it.”

“Speaking of holy, how do Houston and Bobby Wayne know that sprinkling everything with holy water and mixing it with explosives, and having the whole mess blessed by a priest will give it all an extra ‘boom’ when it is used against these things?” Rhi asked. “I think Father Moore must have been a little put out with those idiots back there showing up in the middle of the night with a truckload of weapons and explosives to be blessed.”

“Nah, this is Cripple Creek. The good Padre probably was wondering if he should hightail it last night or this morning. You’d have to be an idiot to not know something is going on,” Pam said. She hefted the gun in one hand. “And we know that holy water has a nasty effect on the critters because Houston, Nate, and Bobby Wayne went down the hill last night while you were napping to blast a few of the demons that popped up at the bottom of the slope, past the barrier Pearl set. The things fried like a drop of water on a hot griddle when hit by our ‘dipped’ bullets. I hope he has a shoulder holster we can size for you in here.” She turned to start digging in the case again. “Houston doesn’t seem to think the little buggers are going to quietly go away after you leave and he has extermination in mind.”

Rhi cringed at the word “extermination.” She suddenly saw a flash of red in her mind’s eye and swerved hard before righting the Blazer.

“Hey,” protested Pam, who was tossed into Ellie Mae by the movement.

Nate had told more than anyone had wanted to know about the bonfire bloodbath. These were flashes of the killings in the woods. Nothing more. Please be nothing more.

“Sorry,” Rhi said and tried to concentrate on the road. The gnawing pain in the back of her head that had begun earlier swelled another increment.

The ratty old Bible Rhi had laid on the dashboard had slid onto the floor.

Pam crawled over the console into the passenger seat. “Don’t drop the damned thing, it might decide to pop out at us. And the back of this truck is filled with
explosives.
” She gingerly picked up the Bible and flipped open the front cover to examine the enchanted picture of the skull and dragon. She had been amazed when Rhi had produced the book earlier and explained the relevance of the picture. “Is this thing
humming
?”

“It won’t pop out, Pam, I have to let it go,” the former witch stated. “And, yes, it is humming. It also glows from time to time, if I remember the spell correctly. It’s kind of like a reminder that it’s in there for me.”

“Weird. How do you do let it go?”

“My other self will tell me how to do it if I need to, like she sent the book to me in the first place. I don’t plan to let it out,” Rhi said. “The book cannot be destroyed but maybe I can hide it again. But I want to be a long way from here first.”

“Where’d you hide it at the house? You seemed completely unconcerned about someone finding it.”

The headache was crawling down the back of her neck and into her back. Trying to ignore it, Rhi worked up a stiff grin. “I put it in a Ziploc and duct taped it to the inside roof of Ellie Mae’s doghouse. Me, myself, and I thought it was a great idea since Ellie’s breed was originally bred to hunt demons the opposing side called up to fight in the Crusades. The little bastards are terrified of her.”

Pam looked at her friend in awe. “You know, for such a small individual, there are an awful of people in that teeny body. How about instead of channeling all of this mystical stuff from a past life, you channel a nuclear physicist to build a really big bomb for us?”

“Because it would kill everyone but the demons, who would bask in the glow. They are from
Hell
,” she replied bitterly, wincing as Ellie Mae once again placed her head on her other shoulder. “Besides, there’s also the fact that level of warfare would upset the balance between good and evil scenario, thus bringing on the final battle. Armageddon. You know the routine…we show up with troops and big bombs, that gives them an excuse to show up with more troops and bigger bombs. Right now Satan is sitting on the sidelines, doubtlessly watching with interest but not involved yet. If we show up at his doors with a huge force, he might decide to get into the fray.”

“Whaa?”

Rhi grinned through her pain. “Something my other self whispered in my ear. Don’t think a thing about it. This might be a good time in your life to consider becoming blissfully ignorant of the world around you, like the rest of the planet’s general population.”

“Sure, no problem. I’ll think myself stupid and forget that your husband’s merry men are responsible for keeping us teetering on the edge of infinity and personally, I don’t think they are doing a very bang up job. Maybe I’ll quit dealing blackjack and become a greeter at one of those cut-rate super stores. That looks like a mind-erasing kind of job.”

Ellie Mae whined softly. The dog had whined anxiously the entire trip, with periodic fits of scratching at the window of the truck, the thick winter coat of fur on her back on end. Maybe Ellie’s head hurt her too. “My head is killing me
and
her head is killing my shoulder.” Blackthorne was near, watching her again. She could feel his presence in her bones. As was probably his brother. Both sides were waiting patiently for her to unleash the Key of the Gate. Their eyes burned her. Burning. Why did she feel such flaming heat?

»»•««

Blackthorne and Pearl observed the two trucks make their way down the giant rift in the Front Range of the Rockies that was known as the Ute Pass. The pair stood on a red sandstone cliff, which was dotted with stunted trees and dead grasses and jutted into the dark morning sky about eighty feet straight above the road. A wispy fog flowed around them, hiding the warriors from other eyes that patrolled the pass. The only reason Manius would allow Rhi to go this far was his knowledge of fate. Knowledge he had obtained as a member of the Brotherhood of the Gate.

“I haven’t decided if I need to kill you or not, Jack, my boy,” Pearl said in a conversational tone. Her speech was pierced by a graceful drip of fury on the last consonant.

The madam was dressed much as she had been before, in immaculate designer fatigues and a plethora of concealing scarves. The only difference was that the woman’s short glittering sword was drawn and at her side. An old-fashioned Colt was belted around her waist, contrasting vividly with the submachine gun slung over one of her shoulders. Pearl’s eyes glittered as she watched the Blazer descend. “It was time to release him? That’s it? You had to let him get out and stretch his legs a bit early?”

Blackthorne wore full battle fatigues and a bulletproof vest. His huge broadsword was contained in a surprisingly modern heavy-duty sheath across his back, formed of black molded plastic and leather. The positioning of the sword would force him to reach over his shoulder to draw it, but Blackthorne needed access to his other weapons as well. It would surely be a busy day.

“If we had waited much longer, he would have gathered up a huge reservoir of power. We don’t know how he managed to do it but I could feel it the moment he began to pull power into his prison and I knew better than to even try to explain it to you,” Blackthorne replied, his frosted eyes never leaving the Blazer below. “I’ve learned the hard way to obey my orders, no matter how distasteful. You haven’t learned that yet. And, being a woman, I doubt you ever will.”

He didn’t give a shit about what Pearl thought of him. “He would have broken free of his own accord and on his own terms if we hadn’t set him up to be loosed. Look at how many demons he’s raised through the cracks of Hell he has access to…can you imagine what he would do with an opened gate? The power he would have built up from some of the more nasty recent wars and terrorist attacks? Freed from his prison, he’s had to use his power to survive the last few years and isn’t able to drain the earth of its pain and fear as well as he did when he lay in the imprisoned within it. And you know we can’t warn anyone.”

Pearl waved him off impatiently. “Yes, I know, knightly one. In giving all of mankind full knowledge of the gates and the objects and powers of the ancients, we could tip the balance between good and evil, inadvertently bringing on a final battle between good and evil. Mankind must prepare through faith, not hard facts. I still think it’s a crock. Practicing diplomatic niceties with the Prince of Darkness.”

“Believe me, I would love to bring in some troops from Fort Carson,” he replied grimly. “But whatever members of the Brotherhood who are not entwined in their own battles and you and me are all of the help we’re gonna have. Come on, it’s time to move, she’s getting out of sight.”

“There might be more backup in
my
town that you realize, Blackie.”

“Been bending the rules again, Pearl?”

Changing the subject, Pearl examined him in the dawn light pityingly. “Do you think she’ll be able to get away with it? Will she be able to run?”

He didn’t bother to answer. They both knew the truth too well. They could only wait now.

»»•««

The headache had begun to overwhelm Rhi like a thick, red tide. They had left the mountains, crossed the labyrinth of streets that comprised the city of Colorado Springs and were headed due east, toward the prairie and Pam’s family homestead.

“It looks like it is going to be cloudy all day today. Hell, we might be in for more snow,” Pam said. “I hate it that I can’t see the damned sun this morning.”

Or is the sky this dark this morning because of something else?
Then the vision and another life hit Rhi head on, the pain in her head blossoming into a vision of fire and blood and a white clapboard farmhouse.
Oh God.

Without thinking, she forced the Blazer off the road, almost landing the truck in a deep ditch. Ellie Mae and Pam squawked in the backseat after falling together, a mass of long legs, both human and canine. Pam, who had climbed in the backseat to admire the ammunition box again, pushed the huge dog off of her in time to see Rhi fling open the truck door and stagger out to stand in the knee high grasses lining the road.

“Rhi.”

Houston managed to not wreck and whipped his truck in behind the Blazer. He scrambled out from behind the steering wheel. Both vehicles were chaotically parked on the side of the lonely road.

Rhi slammed to her knees in the half-frozen mud of the ditch and buried her face in her icy palms. A deep, body-wrenching cough welled up from unexpectedly tiny lungs. She pulled her hands away from her face to stare at the blood that covered her fingers.

Pam and Houston ran to her side where she kneeled in the gravel, snow, and road cinders. Bobby Wayne jumped up into the back of the pickup with an M-16 half-heartedly disguised in a black gym bag, instantly on high alert.

“Rhi, what is it? What’s wrong? Do we need to take you home?” Pam’s concerned face hovered overhead as Rhi felt herself descending into a pit.

“Baby.” Houston’s voice was soothing. “We’ve to get you out of this open space. It isn’t safe.”

“Blood…the streets were muddy. Mud and gold mixed with blood. I remember it all and it’s like I’m being crushed. I can feel Manius’ hands on me and his voice, I can hear it in my head.” Rhi curled into herself and began to rock back and forth. “He says I won’t leave, I’ll do whatever he says to do, like I did before.” She began to scream, tearing at her face and hair, trying to get the voice out of her head and out of her body.

“Folks, we need to go.” Bobby Wayne rotated clockwise in the truck bed, surveying the empty prairie with a practiced eye. The wind whipped past, stinging exposed skin, and the anticipation of something terrible whispered its presence to all.

Pam leaped forward to grab Rhi’s hands. She winced as she tried to restrain the smaller woman, who was writhing on the ground, her eyes rolled back in their sockets, seeing and feeling the enormity of the past. And then the present hit her and Rhi’s body stiffened as an electric current of horror and remorse ran through her.