Bloodliner (34 page)

*****

Chapter 97

Mavis kept moving along the central ring, climbing from one pillar to the next as Genghis pursued her. Her lead quickly melted away, and then he was there beside her. Before she could twist away, he lashed out a hand and clamped it around her upper arm, digging his claws into her flesh.

"Let go of me!" Mavis tried to wrench free of his grip, but his claws only sank deeper.

"I'll be happy to," said Genghis, "just as soon as you and your cousin open Empyrea."

Mavis squirmed, then screamed as Genghis dug his claws in with sudden, clenching force. Genghis laughed and dug in harder. He looked at Thomas, who was perched on a pillar fifty feet away, dangling Jonah like a scarecrow by his distended t-shirt.

"Thomas my son!" Genghis called out across the distance. "What say we share the spoils?"

"You want me to
share
?" said Thomas. "With
you
?"

"Either that, or get
nothing
." Suddenly, Genghis tore Mavis away from the pillar and dangled her in midair by her upper arm. "If
I
can't have Empyrea, I'll make
sure
no one
else
gets it, either!"

Mavis couldn't help screaming. The pain in her arm was excruciating, and it only got worse as he shook her back and forth. Looking down, she saw Arthur far below, battling a horde of vampire warriors—and her heart sank. He was her knight in shining armor, her savior, her love, and he wasn't coming to her rescue anytime soon.

"You expect me to
help
you, after what you
did
to me?" said Thomas.

"What? What did I do?" Genghis sounded innocently perplexed.

Thomas glared at him. "Three weeks ago." His voice was ice cold. "Remember that job you had me do?"

"You'll have to be more specific," said Genghis.

"I planted a hemoform under the hood of a car," said Thomas. "A heat-activated hemoform designed to ruin the engine and wreck the car."

"If you say so," said Genghis.

Thomas' glare darkened. "Why didn't you
tell
me?"

"Tell you what?" said Genghis.

"It was a Honda Civic," said Thomas. "A maroon Honda Civic."

"Why? Are you allergic?" said Genghis.

"You
know
why." Thomas' voice was a snarl.

"Why don't
you
tell
me
?" said Genghis. "It seems you're
dying
to, anyway."

"That was my
parents'
car!" said Thomas. "You made me kill my
mother
and
father
."

"Oh, come on!" said Genghis. "You
knew
. You're a
vampire
. You
must
have picked up their
scent
."

"How could I?" said Thomas. "I haven't
seen
them since I was
eleven
."

"Oh, get over it," said Genghis. "
I'm
more of a parent to you than
they
ever were! I
made
you what you are
today!
I gave you
power
and
purpose!
You will
always
be
my son!
"

Just then, Jonah spoke up. "It was
you
? Oh my God! It was
you
?"

"You'll have to more specific," said Genghis.

"You were the one who
took
them?" said Jonah. "You were the one I
saw
that night?"

"Yes, it was me." Genghis sighed. "So I suppose
you're
pissed at me too, now?"

"Why us?" said Thomas. "Why ruin
our
lives again and again?"

"Careful planning," said Genghis. "Everything was meant to bring us to
this moment
—to put the
keys
in my hands at the gates of Empyrea!"

"Well you won't
get
it!" said Thomas. "I'll
kill
you!"

"Maybe someday." Genghis laughed and shook Mavis, drawing more screams. "But not today."

"You won't get Jonah!" said Thomas.

"And
you
won't get..." Genghis lurched forward as something hit him from behind—
someone
hit him. The blow knocked the breath out of him and made him relax his grip on Mavis.

As Mavis slipped from his hand, another hand grabbed at her...and missed. The hand of the one who'd attacked Genghis.

Mavis saw his face as she fell—the face of Jonah and Thomas' brother, James. His expression as he lost her was twisted with shock and dismay—then pain as Genghis spun and pummeled him.

But Mavis didn't really care what happened to James at that moment. As she fell toward her certain death, she cried out a name, but it wasn't James'. It was the name of her true love, the man she might see one last time when she reached the floor, if only for an instant. The wind of her passage carried it up and away as she plunged. Little more than a fluttering sigh of breath, like life itself.

"Arthur..."

*****

Chapter 98

"Mavis!" Just as Jonah called her name, Thomas swung him around and slammed him against the pillar.

"Hang on!" said Thomas. "I'll be right back!"

As Jonah wrapped his arms and legs around the pillar, Thomas pushed off and leaped away. In one tremendous jump, he covered the fifty feet to the ring of pillars where Genghis and James were fighting.

Thomas landed on the pillar next to the one Genghis clung to and immediately lashed out with a brutal kick to Genghis' head. Surprised, Genghis whipped around, just in time to catch the next kick square in the face. James followed up with a clawed slash across Genghis' side and belly, opening up four gashes bubbling over with black blood.

"You son of a bitch!" Thomas hauled back a leg and plowed a punishing kick into Genghis' wounds. "I
told
you I'd
kill
you!"

As Thomas and James kept up the attack, Jonah struggled to keep his aching arms and legs locked around his pillar. He also did the one thing Mavis had told him not to...though he did it for her. He did it to look for her.

He looked down. The second he did, a wave of intense vertigo rushed through him. Everything seemed to spin, turning in dizzying circles.

But in the middle of it all, far below, he saw her. He saw Mavis falling, looking back at him as she dropped, arms and legs scrambling for purchase. His heart went out to her.

So this is it. We've failed. Without her, without both of us, they can't open Empyrea.

Defeated, Jonah gazed out at the battlefield in the chamber and realized it was all for nothing. Stanza with machine gun blazing, mowing down a tide of monsters. Alexander the Great, a fighting machine all his own, leaving a trail of limbs and organs. Hercules guarding the door, repelling assaults from all quarters at once. Everyone fighting with furious purpose, unaware they had already lost.

But then, as Jonah looked down, dizzy and nauseous and discouraged, he had one last flash of hope. Saw one more chance for victory.

A lone figure, vaulting from below, reaching out for Mavis.

*****

Chapter 99

I'm going to die.
That was what Mavis was thinking.
Any second now, I'll be gone.

Her tears were stripped away by the wind as she fell. She called his name again, sobbing with regret.

Almost there. I'm dead already. The impact will just be a punctuation mark.

Just as she had the thought, she slammed down...and for an instant, thought she'd hit bottom. Thought she'd made the final impact. Closed her eyes in anticipation of oblivion.

But then, she quickly realized she hadn't crashed down at all. She'd hit hard, but she hadn't splattered. Wonder of wonders, she was still breathing and thinking and moving.

Her eyes shot open, and her heart nearly burst with joy when she saw what had happened. Against all hope, she'd been rescued—caught in mid-air. Someone leaping up from below had intercepted her.

He held her in his arms as he continued to rise. His glittering emerald eyes were fixed on a distant point, his square jaw was set, his muscles and tendons straining upward.

She called his name again, and this time, she knew he heard it. "Arthur!"

He was too focused to answer. Following the direction of his gaze, Mavis realized why. He was aiming for one of the pillars, striving to reach it before he hit the peak of his leap and started to drop. He was almost there, barely ten feet away, but he was running out of momentum fast.

Mavis watched the pillar come closer...and then she lost her view as Arthur slung her over his shoulder, freeing a hand to reach out. Grunting from the strain, he stretched, struggling to make contact.

And Mavis felt it when he did. A jarring impact cut through them both, and then they spun in circles around the pillar, shedding momentum as Arthur held on with one mighty hand.

When the spinning ended, Arthur tipped her away from his shoulder and smiled lovingly. "Hello again, my darling Mavis."

"Hello again, my king." Mavis stroked his cheek with her fingers.

"What say we open Empyrea, my love?" Arthur flicked his eyes upward. "In the mood to finish the job?"

Mavis nodded. "Anything," she said. "As long as you're with me."

"Then hold on." Arthur kissed her lips and tucked her against his shoulder. "This could be a bumpy ride."

"I'm ready." Mavis looped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life as he scaled the pillar...held on because she never wanted to be apart from him again as much as because the climb would be perilous.

*****

Chapter 100

Jonah watched from fifty feet away as Genghis battled James and Thomas. Even fighting two of them, both younger than he and just as vampirically enhanced, Genghis was still holding his own. He was still keeping the twins at bay, bashing and gashing them with alternating strikes, preventing either of them from landing a decisive blow.

And then, he was winning. With a vicious piledriver to the chest, he knocked James off the bar and sent him flying. Whipping around, he grabbed Thomas by the throat and clubbed his head against the crystalline pillar.

Somersaulting in midair, James managed to grab a passing bar and swing around it, then leap back to the center ring. He ended up a few bars from Genghis and had to work his way back, hopping from one to the next.

Jonah wasn't sure if Thomas would still be alive by the time James reached him, though. Genghis kept crashing his skull against the pillar, hauling off and
waling
it against the rock-hard crystal. Black blood sprayed from cuts and cracks in Thomas' head, spattering the pillar and Genghis' grinning face.

Jonah's heart jackhammered in his chest, his fear and vertigo forgotten as he watched his brothers in action. This was what it had come down to; an ending much like the beginning, with Jonah watching helplessly as his brothers suffered.

He's going to kill them. He's going to tear them apart.

If only I could do something to save them.

Maybe he could. Swallowing hard, he gathered his courage...then shouted across the divide. "Stop it! Please stop it!"

Genghis didn't pause or give any indication he'd even heard him. He just kept banging Thomas' head against the bar.

"I'll help you find another way to open Empyrea!" said Jonah. "I'll help you get your power! Just please don't kill them!"

"You'll help me anyway! Don't pretend you have a choice!" Laughing, Genghis swung Thomas at the bar with special force. "As your brother would say,
screw you!
"

Then, with a roar, Genghis spun and flung Thomas headfirst at James. Their skulls collided with a
crack
, and James let go of the bar he was holding onto.

No! Oh God, please no!

At the last second before he could drop into freefall, James snagged another bar with one hand. He hooked his legs around Thomas and swung back, dangling by one hand from the pillar, looking dazed and ready to give way.

"James!" said Jonah. "Hold on!"

"He's
toast
!" said Genghis. "Say bye-bye, and make it fast!" With that, he started across the bars toward the twins, clambering from one perch to the next.

"Watch out, James!" Jonah wished he could fly across the gap to the inner circle of bars, wished he could fly to the aid of his brothers. He wished he could make up for failing to save them once before, when they'd needed him most. He wished he could undo the past five years and start over, as if this nightmare had never started.

But he just hung there, and Genghis kept moving closer to the twins.

Everything's lost. I can't help them. No one can help them.

Tears blurred his eyes, and he wiped them away. When he could see again, he couldn't bear to watch his twin brothers being murdered, so he looked down.

Which was when he realized he'd been wrong. He'd been wrong about no one being able to help James and Thomas.

Just as Genghis reached the bar next to theirs, a hand lashed up from below and grabbed his ankle. Someone had been scaling the pillar the whole time he'd been fighting the twins, and Genghis, in his bloodlust, hadn't seen him.

King Arthur!

Arthur had climbed fast and stealthily, gliding hand over hand up the bar. Even carrying a passenger—Mavis, who clung to his neck—he'd zipped quickly and effortlessly to the heights.

And now, with just one hand, Arthur brought down Genghis. He yanked Genghis' ankle hard, jolting his foot free and breaking his hold on the pillar. Genghis was caught by surprise, and his panicked scrambling did no good; he fell back and away from the pillar, howling with rage as he plummeted toward the floor.

Arthur hoisted himself up and helped Mavis find a hold on the pillar, then leaped over to help James and Thomas. As he lifted Thomas, taking the strain off James, he called out across the way.

"Jonah!" said Arthur. "I'll be right with you!"

A feeling of great relief washed over Jonah at the sound of that voice. He knew he was far from safe, far from finished with his struggles, but at least he knew there was hope. At least he knew, with King Arthur in action, that he had a fighting chance of making things work out.