First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) (20 page)

“Why am I letting you do this?” asked Karl, his voice hard and sharp as he shuffled into position. “You still haven’t explained …”

Amber held the bowl lightly in both hands and remained unmoving for several heart beats. Karl began to wonder if she was going to answer him at all when she spoke.

“You … we … have something on us that is making us weak. It can’t be seen with normal eyes. I’m going to do something so you can see it.”

“Drugs,” spat Karl, pointing at her bowl of leaves. “Hallucinogens. Magic mushrooms.”

Amber laughed and poured the leaves over the burning coals. “White sage is used by Native Americans to spiritually cleanse places and themselves. Smells nice, but is no use at all if you want to party.”

As the smoke billowed up to envelop her she began to mutter. Karl caught his breath as the loosely rolling smoke tightened into a narrow pillar ignoring the gentle breeze that should have spread it over the clearing. She moved her hands smoothly through the smoke, slicing back and forth. The segments she cut hung quietly in midair before her instead of rising or dispersing. She moved the open fan around the puffs, molding them into loose balls. While he watched, open-mouthed, she batted a smoke ball with the fan as if it were a baseball. The smoke tumbled silently through the air to splatter against his chest.

“Hey,” he shouted, then remembered his intention of not breathing the smoke; he clamped his hand over his mouth and pinched his nose shut.

Again and again Amber sliced out balls of fragrant smoke and batted them at Karl. As each one hit the smoke seemed to cling, glistening, to his skin.

“Turn,” cried Amber, and returned to her chant.

Karl shuffled his feet in a small circle as the barrage of smoke balls continued. He could feel each soft impact as the glittering grey balls splashed against his body. A grey haze hung before his eyes obscuring Amber, the circle, the mirror, everything. He struggled against the need to breathe, determined to avoid the scented smoke.

“Enough,” shouted Amber and the smoke pillar loosened and spread to rise naturally. She opened her fan again and started drawing it in waves through the empty air. Karl felt the previously gentle breeze stir. First a gentle wisp of a breeze then a powerful wind passed through the circle. Just as suddenly, it was gone.

So was the smoke.

As the last whiffs dispersed Karl faced his reflection. His mouth worked as he tried to frame words his paralyzed mind could not create. In reflection his body could be barely seen through the glowing grey outlines. But there was more in the mirror than his familiar body. A thick black cord plunged through his chest, emerged from his back to wrap around his neck and plunged down through his navel and groin. Strands passed completely through his head and wrapped round it like a malevolent turban, completely concealing his eyes. His chest and arms were wrapped in a cocoon of light-swallowing black.

“Holy …” He gasped, struggling to draw in breath past the weight he now felt hanging over his body. “What the fuck is that!”

Amber stepped forward to stand beside him.

“There’s nothing holy about this,” she said, “not by anyone’s religion. You must have pissed someone off good and proper.”

“What is it?” shouted Karl, clawing at his chest, trying to seize what he could see in the reflection, but not when he looked down at himself. “Get this out of me.”

“This is part of what is making you ill, but only part.” Her voice was calm, reassuring. “This is the beginning. What you don’t realize is that there’s a web that rests over your store and goes from you, from the store, to a lot of other places and people. Can you see? This one here leaving your body? That is connected to the end of the web. I’m not certain what or how, but the only way to find out is to go further. More magic. I have tried to follow this thing to its source, but I got caught, only barely got away. The only way I can find out what caused this is to go through you. I have to go into the spell. If I succeed, then maybe I can remove it from you.” Amber drew breath, then exhaled, letting the air drift from her. “Is that what you truly desire?”

“Damn straight. Get this out.”

Sweat sprang out on Karl’s face and neck; his breath came in gasps. Briefly he considered that there was
something
in the smoke she’d thrown at him; then he saw Amber in the mirror. Where he had one snake diving through his body, she had dozens … hundreds, but under them all was Amber. The Spell of True Seeing showed him as a vague shadow. Battered and weak, barely alive under the weight of his single whatever it was. But Amber. Beneath the web of black strands her body glowed — a kaleidoscope of moving colors, shifting with each emotion that touched her face.

One strand, thicker than the rest passed from Amber through to Karl.

“What happened to you? Did this come from you?” Karl despised the panic he could hear in his own voice.

“Remember, I told you. This happened to me when I touched the door to your store. These others happened when I tried to trace this first one to its other end and was trapped.” She glanced away for a moment, then turned back to stare into his eyes. “Do you wish to be freed?”

Her voice echoed in the clearing.

“Yes, dammit. Get this out.”

“I have to take a look at the shape of the sp …” she began.

“Enough of this shit,” shouted Karl, clawing again at his chest. “I want this out.”

“Even if removing it kills you?”

Karl gasped, paralyzed by the enormity of the threat.

Amber continued soberly. “I have to warn you; I have never done this before. I still don’t know exactly what has happened to you, but I can sense the energies involved and your current state …” She waved her hand at his pale, thin aura in the reflection. Compared to the glowing colorful light surrounding her he looked anemic. Sick. Weak. “I’m not sure what will happen. You don’t have much strength left. I may be able to remove this thing, if we find out what it is and how it is bound to you, but if you live, your soul, your spirit will heal. But removing it may just mean you hemorrhage your remaining strength. You could die.”

She lifted her hand; Karl could see heat haze rippling around her fingers, distorting the bushes and leaves behind her.

“Choose.”

“Do it.” He closed his eyes, and heart thudding, braced himself against an unknown threat.

Amber seized the cord that bound them together and sank her hand down the link and into his chest.

Karl shrieked and arched his back, his arms outflung, held upright only by Amber’s arm thrust through his body.

* * * * *

Karl gasped and pressed his hands against his naked chest, touching the bare skin with tentative fingers.

The heavy snake was gone. The twisting black cords – gone. The pain where Amber had … had pushed her hand straight through his chest – his mind recoiled from the memory – was also gone. Glancing side to side he noted two things. One, he was back in that nightmare, which could mean that the scene in Amber’s back yard with the black snake thing wrapped around and through his body, was likely another bad dream.

And two, he was not alone.

Which meant … what?

Amber was studying the distant ragged horizon with a frown. Although the frown was not the first thing, or things, that Karl noticed. Whenever he’d had this nightmare he’d been naked and that dream rule had apparently carried over to Amber, who was currently completely and gloriously naked.

So the back yard circle and the snake thing … might be real?

Karl took a slow deep breath and turned to give a different skyline his attention. If the dream went back to its usual sequence, the wolves would be approaching from over that ridge any second now. His heart started beating faster. He should warn Amber. They should try to find cover. But there wasn’t anywhere to hide; he knew from all the other nights. There was nowhere that the wolves could not find him, but for Amber’s sake, he had to look again. No matter what she was, she didn’t deserve to suffer in his nightmare.

“You remember this now?” asked Amber.

Karl nodded, his eyes on the opposite horizon.

“Okay,” said Amber, waving one hand across the scene and scattering blue dust from her hand. “I will give the person who created this dreamscape credit. They have a pretty thorough imagination. Logical mind, too.” She nodded to herself, apparently satisfied by something. “Nice attention to detail.”

Karl shook his head.

“This is no time to be acting like a movie critic,” he said, his voice echoing harshly. “Have you forgotten how much danger I – we are in?”

Amber ignored him and watched the dust drift and settle.

“Look at that,” she said.

She bent down and picked up another handful of dust to scatter. Karl was distracted from her words by the movement of her muscular butt. Naked muscular butt. Impressive. Smooth. Nice. The globes were just the right size, right shape to give a man something to hold onto.

“Whoever dreamed this up even made the gravity appear stronger,” continued Amber, “and it’s consistent. It must feel like wading in mud to move around here.”

Karl glanced at the dust drifting down to wrap around Amber’s bare legs and turned away, his hands hovering vaguely in his groin area.

If it had been something he’d planned or something that had happened in the course of a date, a nice uneventful progression of actions leading up to being naked with a girl, he would be fully prepared to stand around with no clothes on. Would enjoy it. He was willing to admit Amber wasn’t bad naked. She had a few very good points naked. He turned his attention, resolutely, back to the distant horizon.

“Karl? Karl?”

He jumped as Amber his tapped shoulder.

“I’m talking to you and you’re ignoring me. What is your issue?”

Karl kept his eyes on the ridge. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re … naked.”

Amber glanced down at her breasts without any change in expression.

“Actually, I’m nude. Nude is when you have no clothes on. Naked is when you’re nude and you’re up to something.” She smiled as she said it.

The statement was so unexpected that Karl tried to snort and laugh at the same time and ended up doubled over coughing. The disturbed blue dust swirled around them.

“I thought you didn’t do the naked dancing thing,” he said, when he got his breath back.

“Do you see any dancing happening?” Amber put both hands on her … Karl had to admit … smooth and shapely hips and glared at him. “I do when it is appropriate for the situation. In this situation, nude appears to be the dress code. Someone else’s idea, but hey, I can deal. When you’ve quite finished staring, I’d like to know what this place means to you and why we came here?”

Karl tried to shape an answer, but for a moment no sound came out.

“We’re really here?” he stammered. “You and me in the same dream?”

“Yes,” she slipped a dusty hand under his chin and tilted his head up, his teeth coming together with a sharp snap, “and if you can concentrate on something other than my boobs for a minute, we could get some work done. What does this dream mean to you?”

“How did you … we get here?”

Amber ignored his questions and gave the dreamscape a puzzled glance.

“This is part of your problem … a symptom, I guess. When I reached down the thing that latched onto me in your store, and put power into finding the source of your problem, this is where we ended up. So that brings me back to my question. What does this mean to you? And look at me when I’m talking to you.”

Karl tried to turn his face away, but she tightened her grip. He stepped back and shook free of her hand.

“I was trying to be a gentleman. You and your breasts are intruding on my nightmare.”

“Charming,” drawled Amber. “Nightmare, indeed. If you’d be so kind as to answer the question, I, my breasts, and various other body parts could go back to the real world and get some work done.” Amber waved her hand impatiently at the dreamscape. “What does this mean?”

Karl shrugged, wishing she would turn her back for a while. Up close and personal, Amber and her various bits and pieces were distracting. Pleasantly distracting, he was prepared to admit. He made a mental note to meet her breasts again at the next available social opportunity. They looked well worth the effort. That little triangle of curls told him that she was a natural blonde and he … Karl pulled his wandering attention back and focused on Amber’s intense brown eyes.

“This is my nightmare. I remember it now; although, usually I’ve got half a dozen wolves chasing me.”

“Okay …” Amber raised a delicate bronze eyebrow. “Usually implies more than once. So how often do you have this dream?”

“Every damn night since college.” Karl bit each word off hard, the terror rising at the memory of the hunt. “Oh, my God, I remember. This is what happens to me. Every night!”

“Seriously? Every night? That is beyond …” she paused. “Let me get this straight. When you left college you started having this night …”

“Before I left college,” interrupted Karl. “No. It started in my third year. I can’t remember the number of classes I went to half asleep. I had to quit the karate club. I could barely stay awake to study … fell asleep in exams.”

“And it’s been the same every night. Always the same hunt, the same hunters?” Amber’s voice was hard and loud in the unnatural stillness of the dreamscape.

Karl rubbed his face.

“It never occurred to me to analyze the dream. Not when I was in it. Why analyze a dream? I’m not a psych student. And once I wake up I can’t remember the details. Just that I was scared. That I was hunted. I didn’t want to go to sleep.”

Amber nodded as if this were the only right way for dreams to behave, her expression serious. Karl paused. He’d never been subjected to such complete attention before. He could see his every word sinking into her mind, reflected on her intent face. It was disconcerting.

“Think about it now,” she said. “It’s important; everything you remember is vitally important.”

“Okay. Okay. I think when the dream started, years ago, it was only two wolves and they weren’t in good shape,” Karl stared at the suddenly familiar skyline. The wolves hadn’t put in an appearance yet. It was like looking at a stage – no music, no dialogue – an empty space waiting for the actors to appear. He’d never had the leisure to study it before. To see the line of hills merging with the sky. “Their fur was a mess and they were slow, clumsy, but I couldn’t get away. Over time it seemed they got stronger, faster. Then they took longer to hunt me down, as if they were playing. Then a third one turned up and … more. The number of wolves increased to about eight or ten over the last few years, not always the same wolves … the queen bitch wolf, she’s always there.”