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And then a thunderous crash sounded in the amphitheater, and the gate split wide open. We stared into the abyss, waiting.
The inky void cracked like Humpty’s egg, and in a wash of blinding light that wasn’t really light but rather energy, the mother Karsetii slid through. She was huge and fully healed, and I could feel her terrible hunger from the energy that coiled around her.
But none of that mattered.
She might be huge and healed and hungry, but she wasn’t Shadow Wing, and that was our saving grace.
A noise behind us startled me. Damn. The necromancer was up and awake again. Vanzir lunged at him, but this time he was ready and sidestepped the dream chaser.
“Great and mighty Shadow Wing, accept my offering! I bring you a sacrifice. I bring you the shining soul of one of the elves.” He lunged past me, his dagger raised as he aimed for the elf’s heart.
“No!” I jumped, catching him around the waist and tossing him toward the Karsetii. He screamed as the hive mother hovered in front of him, and a clone split off, tendriling its long suckers toward his skull. As the demon child reached for him, the necromancer vanished.
I jerked around, looking for him. Where the hell had he gone? I couldn’t see him anywhere. But then the realization that we had a healthy, hungry demon facing us who was ready for lunch yanked my attention back to the matter at hand. We’d better put her out of business for good, or we’d all be on the menu.
As I turned back to where the Karsetii waited, I could feel it watching us, deliberating. A whistling noise rumbled through the amphitheater and a few whiffs of mist appeared as Smoky stepped out of the Ionyc Sea. He took one look at Camille’s wounds, and his eyes narrowed.
“Who did this?”
Roz was busy unshackling the elf. She’d passed out. There wasn’t much we could do for her right now. “A necromancer—must be one of the Hellions. The Karsetii’s back, and we’re going to have to go after it.”
“Where is he? The wizard?” Smoky was set to kill, I could see that much.
Camille touched his arm. “The demon first, or it might go after Delilah. Please?”
He glanced at the Karsetii, then gently brought her hand to his lips, kissing her fingertips. “As you wish, my love.” With a glance at the rest of us, he said, “I can carry three of you over to the astral. Roz, can you and Vanzir manage Delilah?”
Before they could answer, the Karsetii suddenly veered to the right and headed out another door that lead farther into the underground labyrinth.
“Shit! Where the hell is it going?” I took off, racing toward the door. “Come on! We have to keep that thing in sight before it hives off a bunch of clones.” As I pounded through the door, the others followed.
The winding corridor led us in a spiral downward. Whoever had created this labyrinth had certainly spent time and money on it, probably long before the house had any neighbors close enough to wonder what the fuck was going on.
Up ahead, I could barely see the tail end of the Karsetii as it zipped along through the air, like a squid through water, pointy head aimed toward some unknown destination. Along the way I caught sight of several doors leading into what looked like various laboratories. I was beginning to feel like we were in one of the fifties B-grade SF movies Delilah watched during late-night marathons on the SF Fans Channel—Robot Monster, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Beginning of the End, Them!—all the old movies I’d learned to love.
I was running so fast that a sudden corner caught me by surprise, and I skidded, taking the curve too sharply. As I landed face-first against a wall, I realized that the passages were no longer compacted dirt but shored up by stone and brick. I bounced off the wall, shook my head, and sped up.
Ahead, about twenty feet forward, the passage opened out. Head down, I raced through the entrance and found myself in a large chamber that appeared to be carved out of solid stone.
The man-made cavern was so vast I could barely see the other side. Natural stone pillars had been left at strategic spots throughout the chamber, no doubt to act as load-bearing columns. Illuminated by lights strung along the ceiling like many caverns open to the public, the center of the chamber housed what appeared to be an opening into the earth with mist steaming out from it.
Around the chamber, scattered tables sat waiting for use, filled with beakers and Bunsen burners and various jars of one sort or another.
I blinked. We really had stumbled into the mad scientist’s lair. A metal table near the largest research station had several bodies strapped to it. I could tell they were dead, because they were a shade of blue no human should ever be unless they were Picts wearing woad. Electrodes were strapped to various points on one of the bodies; the only body that looked even relatively normal.
The other corpses were in various shades of transformation. An indigo ooze covered one of the bodies—oh shit!
“Viro-mortis slime! The aggressive variety. Be careful,” I called back to the others. The slime was actually a colony of creatures that attacked and absorbed flesh.
Delilah let out a “Gross!” and slowed down.
“Where’s the damned demon? And that wizard?” Smoky stalked around the room, seeking out his prey. Every table he came to he overturned, sending beaker after bottle after jar smashing to the floor. Fumes rose as chemicals sizzled in volatile puddles.
“Better hope none of those goes boom when they touch each other,” I said, but at his glower, I backed off. The necromancer better pray I got to him first. As rough as I planned to be, Smoky’s attack would be far, far worse.>He waved a hand, and all the other members of Dante’s Hellions fell to the floor, facedown. What the . . . ? They acted like he was some sort of god.
Oh shit. Was he? Was he a demon they’d managed to summon before we could stop them? But though demonic energy clung to his aura like a rodeo rider on a bucking bronco, it wasn’t emanating from him.
As he approached, we formed a battle line. Camille glanced at me and tried to say something, but no words emerged; no sounds filtered through the passageway at all.
