The Peregrine Omnibus Volume One (90 page)

The Zeppelin smiled, sensing that Theodora was playing to his ego. “You should begin your attempts at finding Caine and Winters.” Theodora started to turn but was stopped by the Zeppelin’s hand on her arm. “I have faith in you, Theodora. Don’t let me down.”

* * *

The Black Zeppelin watched Theodora lean back against the wall, letting her head rest so that her eyes stared up at the ceiling. She was an attractive girl, with a shapely form and perpetually pouting lips, but there was something about her that kept her from being truly lovely. The Zeppelin thought it was the fawning need that shone constantly in her eyes. She desired Bane not only because he was attractive but because he was powerful… and that power made her feel special, in turn. She was a weak woman at the core, drawn like a moth to the flame.

The Zeppelin saw her breathing slow as she slid into the active phase of her mental abilities. The Reich had early on decided to locate and tap into the many occultists that existed around the world. Those with telepathy or the capacity for magic were approached first but soon others were brought into the fold. Bane himself had no natural abilities but a series of painful treatments had left him with the power of silent flight, as well as dense flesh and the strength of three men.

Theodora’s body began to thrash somewhat, as if she were having a seizure. Small cuts and bruises appeared on her flesh and Bane watched her with renewed interest. She was able to make contact with denizens from another plane, demonic things that none but she could see. They would reveal information to her but at an awful price… they did things to her spirit, a sort of astral rape that left her violated and afraid. But Bane kept pushing for more, knowing that the information she received was useful… and because he was secretly titillated by her agony.

Theodora gasped aloud and staggered away from the wall, clutching at her chest. She panted and looked terrified, allowing the Zeppelin to pull her against him.

“What did they tell you?” he pressed. “Where are they?”

Theodora looked up at him and opened her mouth to speak. Her words were lost in a loud explosion that rocked the entire complex and sent men and women fleeing to safety as pieces of the ceiling collapsed all around them.

“What the hell…?” Bane wondered aloud.

Theodora clutched at his arm, bringing his face round to hers. “They’re here.”

“What? He shouted, as the complex was rocked by a second explosion and the sound of gunfire now filled the air.

“They’re here! The Peregrine and the others—they’re here!”

CHAPTER XII

Where Evil Dwells

One hour before the attack in Cardiff, Evelyn Davies slowly came to. She was lying on the front seat of her husband’s car, her head resting against his leg. Max was steering the heavily modified vehicle through the city streets, while Nathaniel and Rachel sat in the back, talking softly to each other.

Evelyn rubbed her eyes, the pain mostly having gone, but her vision left more than a bit blurry. “Where are we?” she asked, sitting up and looking around. When she saw Rachel looking back at her, she forced a wan smile and looked back at her husband.

“Doctor Satan got away… and these two came through the rift. Nathaniel is that police officer’s friend.” The Peregrine glanced over his shoulder. “Nathaniel, Rachel… this is my wife, Evelyn.”

After pleasantries were exchanged, Evelyn whispered to Max. “And we’re going where?”

“No idea,” Max admitted. “I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out. How are you feeling?”

“Woozy. Everyone looks like I’m staring through water at them.”

“When we get a moment, I’ll examine your eyes. I don’t think there’s going to be any permanent damage but I haven’t a clue as to what that powder was.”

Evelyn nodded, looking out at London as it passed by. “I want to see that man punished, Max. I know I don’t usually go down the path of vengeance but this time… I won’t complain one bit when you brand Doctor Satan’s forehead and beat him to a pulp. He’s pure evil.”

“I agree… but he’s remarkably slippery. It’s almost as if he made a deal with his namesake. Sold his soul in exchange for being impossible to catch.”

Evelyn sighed. “Poor Ascott,” she said, mentioning their friend, who had spent more than a decade battling Doctor Satan throughout the world. “As much as Satan’s hurt us, just imagine the hell he’s put Ascott through.”

“I hate to interrupt, but do you think we could have silence for Rachel?”

Max looked back at Nathaniel, who had his arm around Rachel. The red haired beauty looked deep in concentration, staring forward into nothingness. Now and again her eyes seemed to glow and a small halo of light surrounded her head.

“What is she trying to do?” Evelyn asked.

“She’s a telepath,” Max answered. “She’s trying to find others like herself who are being used to power the Un-Earth. We need to bring this entire affair to a close and by finding where they have the others, we can get back on track.”

Evelyn fell silent, watching as Rachel lost herself. The girl was reaching out with her mind, doing something different than what Max had tried earlier. Her spirit was not leaving her body… she was merely opening her mind so wide that she could sense others like herself. It was an incredibly daunting task but one that she was certain she could accomplish.

Rachel tried not to think about what Satan had said… about her being Nathaniel’s chosen mate. It was a thrilling thought but scary, too. Despite how passionate they felt about each other and the intimate nature of their psychic link, it was all still so fresh…

Suddenly, on the outermost periphery of her senses, Rachel felt contact. It was another mind like her own, tortured by the drain on their spirit but still burning brightly, like a newly dawning day. “I feel him,” she said aloud. “In Cardiff. I have the address. His name is Brian. He’s hurting. And… I think they’re preparing to open a gate. Someone’s going to be coming through from the other side soon.”

“Bane,” Nathaniel said. “He’s coming through, looking for us.”

Max pulled off the main road, taking them down a bumpy garden path. Nathaniel recognized the area as being one on the outskirts of the city, with many homes.

“We have to get to Cardiff,” Rachel murmured, shaking her head to clear it.

“I’m way ahead of you,” the Peregrine said. He stopped the car next to a plane that was parked in the center of a large clearing. He flipped a switch near the steering wheel, which sent a signal to the plane. A ramp lowered slowly from the rear of the plane and the Peregrine drove up into the belly of the air vehicle. “Welcome onboard the most sophisticated plane in existence. The quarters will be a bit cramped with the four of us onboard but I think we’ll all get by.”

As the quartet stepped from the car, Nathaniel stared around in amazement. The plane seemed uniquely built for speed but as a non-pilot, he had no idea what he was looking at. Somehow, he doubted that most airmen would have, either. “How did you get this into the country without being shot down? There would have been a dozen air raid sirens going off when you flew over London!”

“I’m good at hiding,” was the Peregrine’s only reply. He moved to the cockpit and settled in, starting up the pre-flight sequence. He was just about finished and ready to start the engines when Evelyn touched his shoulder.

“We have a problem,” she said in the tone of one who just had the rug pulled out from under them.

The Peregrine looked out the window and saw Doctor Satan standing in the grass before them. His red cloak was pulled tight around his arms as they were crossed over his chest.

Satan smiled and began to speak, his words mystically carried into the Peregrine’s plane. “I realize you’re about to go and save the world again but I simply have to say… you’re beginning to annoy me. Let’s stop the silly games and put our cards on the table, shall we?”

The Peregrine stood up, facing his foe through the viewport. He let his fingers linger near the Knife of Elohim, sheathed at his waist. The golden dagger had once been bathed in the blood of Christ and dealt especially harsh damage to demonic entities. The Peregrine wondered what it would to do the man before him. “Go on.”

“If I haven’t made it clear before… I plan to kill you and your entire family if you don’t stay out of my way.” Satan opened his arms, spreading his hands in a gesture of mocking sincerity. “I don’t want to have to do that. I’m not fool enough to expect you to join me and conquer the world at my side, though I’d welcome you if you chose to do so…” Satan shrugged as if he knew what the response within the plane would be. “Instead, I offer you this one chance: swear to leave me and my people alone and I’ll do the same for you. Refuse… and I’ll bathe in the blood of your wife and son.”

“Go to hell,” Max whispered. He yanked the Knife of Elohim free of its sheathe and leaned forward to flip a switch that raised the front window. It had barely risen to the proper level when the Peregrine let the knife fly through the air.

Doctor Satan tried to move but the blade’s flight was augmented by the Peregrine’s telekinesis. It traveled almost too quickly for the human eye to see and the knife buried itself in Satan’s right shoulder, eliciting a scream of pain and rage.

“You’re going to regret that,” the villain hissed as the Peregrine yanked the blade free and drew it back to himself with the power of the mind.

“I doubt it,” Max said. The knife spun about in mid-air and rocketed back to strike the villain again.

Doctor Satan gasped as a new wound—this one in his midsection—was ripped open. The occultist pointed one hand at the Peregrine and suddenly squeezed, mouthing the words
Corruptus imaginum infinitum!

The Peregrine staggered back, feeling like someone had taken a baseball bat to his skull. His vision swam and for a moment he had the very distinct image of his father, looking just as he had the day of his death. It was the way his father always looked when he appeared to Max, even to this day… appearing as a hazy, ghostlike entity to tease his son with visions of the future. And then his father was gone… and the interior of Max’s head was silent, for the first time in a very long time. Gone was the psychic impression of his wife, always there, no matter how faint.

“Max? Please… talk to me.”

The Peregrine’s vision cleared and he realized he was on his knees, surrounded by Evelyn, Nathaniel and Rachel. “Satan… where’s Satan?”

“Gone,” Nathaniel answered. “He disappeared. I got your weapon back for you.”

Max saw the golden blade in Nathaniel’s hand and nodded. He clutched at Evelyn, drawing her close. “He did something to me… stuck some sort of barrier in my brain.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t use my mental powers. Every time I try to call on my telepathy or make anything move around me… I hit a brick wall.”

“Oh, Max… I’m so sorry.”

The Peregrine paused for a moment and then he began to laugh, an expression of emotion that was so shocking that his wife stared at him mutely for a moment. When Max finally realized that she was worried about his mental state, he regained control of himself. Smiling, he tried to explain himself to her. “No. That crimson idiot did me a favor. I know I’ve been mastering those powers lately but they’ve always been a curse to me… for years, I wanted to be free of those visions. They drove me to the depths of depression. But now I’m free! He freed me, darling.”

Evelyn joined him in grinning. “In that case, then… Congratulations.”

Max stood up, something stirring in the back of his memory. Not too long ago, he’d stood over the bloodied form of a demon’s host, one who had given him visions of the future. Max had seen himself living on into the next century, long after all he’d loved had died. In the year 2009, Max Davies would pass on his mantle to a new Peregrine… one who would make due with a mystical set of lenses, which would mimic some of the Peregrine’s natural abilities. But there was nothing in that vision of the future to suggest that Max still had his powers. In fact, the future Max had mentioned that it had been far too long since he’d seen his father: did that mean that Doctor Satan’s spell, meant to hamper the Peregrine’s effectiveness, was permanent?

“God, I hope so,” he whispered. When he caught Nathaniel staring at him, he raised his voice. “Let’s go get Bane, shall we?”

“Are you sure?” Catalyst asked, eyes narrowing. “Without your powers…?”

“I’m still one of the most dangerous men on the planet.” The Peregrine closed the front window of the plane and started the engines. “It’s going to feel good relying on my physical skills again. That’s the way it ought to be.” Max grinned at Nathaniel. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Nathaniel said. The Catalyst stared out into the night sky and nodded. Soon, all of this would be over… but what then? Would he have the guts to do what the Peregrine did? Risk his life day after day?
I do that already,
he realized.
The only difference now would that I wouldn’t be hamstrung by the courts. I could do what really needs doing. I couldn’t tell Charlie, though… he’s too by the book.

“And you’d have a partner of your own,” Rachel reminded him, speaking aloud.

Nathaniel looked startled for a moment and then realized she’d read his thoughts. “You mean that? You’d be my partner?”

Something in the way he asked the question made a blush come to Rachel’s cheeks. Before she could catch herself, she whispered “I think I’m already in love with you. Isn’t that insane?”

“No. It’s the sanest thing I’ve ever heard.”

CHAPTER XIII

Final Battle

The Peregrine stormed into the Cardiff facility, guns blazing. He took out a half dozen Nazi staff members in the first few seconds after Catalyst had blown open a path into the building. Max saw Evelyn taking careful aim at his side, crouching and preparing each shot. Rachel and Nathaniel were somewhere in between the wild mania of Max’s attacks and the careful precision of Evelyn’s. The red-haired girl fried the brains of two armed guards while her lover generated a mystic cloud that rendered three more unconscious.

“Do you have a fix on the boy?” Max shouted to Rachel, who nodded and pointed towards the next room. The quartet followed the young telepath and found a man floating in a tank just like the one that had served as Rachel’s prison.