His mind was as sharp as ever, though, and he decided to make use of its powers one last time before he moved on from this place. Settling back against his pillows, he gathered his strength and with a sharp mental shove cast his consciousness out beyond the walls of the facility in which he lay to the crisp, clean air of the summer night. While the Na’Karat might have the physical power to fly, Gabriel’s kind flew in other, truer ways, and he wouldn’t have traded it for the world.
He soared above the buildings, reveling in his freedom, then swooped down toward the forest floor below. As he did so, a rabbit jumped out of the undergrowth and stopped to feed on a patch of clover.
What would it be like to exist as you do, my little fellow? he asked it silently. To have no responsibilities, no worries, to sleep at night without the burden of suffocating doubts that plague you like a leprous disease rotting you away from the inside out? What would it be like, to think only of the present moment, with no thought or consideration to the future or the past?
The rabbit stiffened suddenly, as if sensing his presence and with a sudden burst of speed it spun to the right and disappeared into the undergrowth.
Gabriel watched it go, following its passage into the woods by listening for the tiny thump of its heart. He wished his furry friend good fortune, and then sent his presence soaring high above the ground to view the world once more in the fashion of his youth, before the coming of man and the war that destroyed his people.
Once his 'eyes' had seen enough, he returned to his body and lay there in the darkness of his room, waiting.
Instead of concentrating on the confrontation he knew would soon occur, his thoughts drifted.
An image of a woman formed in his mind. She was beautiful, a golden-haired goddess with eyes of emerald green and cherry red lips.
Ah, Mira, my beautiful Mira! How long has it been? he thought sadly. His heart ached for her just as it had in ages past, when they had walked hand in hand beneath the golden spires of their fair city. He loved her as strongly as he had in the days of his youth. If anything, that devotion had grown stronger with the passage of time, until he felt close to bursting with his longing for her. He could remember her face as clearly now as if he’d seen it only yesterday; he could trace its soft, gentle curves in the air with his eyes and feel the heat of her breath on his lips. He knew it wouldn’t be long before they were reunited, and he secretly longed for his journey through the ages to be over so that he could join her in the afterworld.
Gabriel watched the ticking hands of the clock, and wished they’d move faster.
Eventually he drifted off to sleep.
He awoke a short while later, and knew immediately that he was no longer alone.
The sliding glass doors to his balcony hung open, the stiff breeze coming through causing the curtains to billow out into the night.
At the base of his bed stood the Nightshade.
They stared at each other.
To Gabriel, the beast was as foul as the day he had locked it away beneath the earth. The Elder was dismayed to see that it looked as powerful as it had on that long ago night, as if sealing it off from reality had let it gather strength in some mysterious fashion instead of crippling it as he’d intended when he’d created its prison. The beast’s muscles rippled beneath its hide, and its eyes gleamed with cunning intelligence.
Gabriel was suddenly worried that he had waited too long.
There was no way Sam and his friends would be able to defeat it if it was as strong as he feared.
Moloch stared at the Elder. Rage and hatred rose in him like a rain-swollen river. Here was the one who had pursued him through the ages. Here was the one who had sought to imprison him forever without shape or substance in a timeless void deep beneath the earth.
Here was his enemy.
The beast almost laughed. The Elder was nothing more than a pathetic husk of what he’d once been, and certainly no match for Moloch’s own powers. Killing him won’t be an effort, it will be a favor.
Gabriel broke the silence, speaking in the old tongue.
'You will regret coming here.' He kept his voice firm, but suspected that the beast had already seen his dismay at the other’s apparent strength. He would give no more away than he had to, however.
'I think not.'
The Nightshade’s voice was thicker, more guttural than he remembered, and Gabriel found himself wondering if it had sustained some permanent damage from its confinement.
'You will not succeed. The humans are stronger now, more able to face the challenges that life lays at their feet. They will use their technology to destroy you.'
Moloch laughed. 'I have not been idle since my release. I have watched the cattle. I have seen what they are capable of. I have also learned that they do not believe in anything besides that which they can lay their hands upon. They have forgotten the past and rely too much on the future. I will show them what it means again to be hunted and they will once again remember their fear.'
Gabriel had been gathering his strength during the beast’s speech. As the final syllables were falling from its mouth, Gabriel lashed out with the force of his mind in a vicious mental attack.
The Nightshade stumbled under the sudden onslaught. He had been caught off guard, unsuspecting, and the Elder’s mental barrage began to knock down his internal defenses, threatening to kill him with sheer force of will. He was actually forced backward, away from the bed, by the power of the attack.
Gabriel realized that he had the upper hand, and threw more of his reserves in behind the attack, hoping to overwhelm the beast and destroy it before it had a chance to retaliate.
The end was not to be that easy, however.
The beast quickly regained control, snapping its shields into place, protecting itself, locking out the power of the attack. Gabriel tried vainly for several long moments to breach the shields, but to no avail.
At last, exhausted, he was forced to drop the assault.
Shaking his head, Moloch stepped back over to the bed and stared at Gabriel anew. It did not look damaged in any way by the attack, and despair washed through Gabriel for the first time in many years. He had to face the truth; he was no longer a match for the beast.
Unless Sam and his friends could destroy it, the Nightshade was going to win.
*** ***
Katelynn was in the library, reading, when it happened. One moment she was engrossed in the record of life in the 1700s, the next, the world seemed to shrink inward on her, a black haze obscuring her sight. She fought to remain conscious, but it was too late.
She lost herself in the darkness.
When she came to again, she was no longer in the library.
She stood in Gabriel’s room at the nursing home. He was sitting upright in bed, staring at her standing at its foot, an expression of fear and revulsion on his face. He was obviously exhausted, but he seemed to summon his strength as she watched, as if preparing for a confrontation.
Katelynn did not understand what was going on.
What she doing here?
Gabriel watched the Nightshade recover from his attack. The beasts’ tongue flicked out over its teeth, and the Elder knew the end was near. He had exhausted his strength in that last-ditch effort to destroy the Nightshade, and knew he would not survive long at the creature’s hands. That Moloch intended to make him suffer as long as possible was entirely too clear.
Gabriel had no intention of allowing that to happen.
As the beast stalked closer, Gabriel summoned what little strength he had left. He did not have the energy to project another attack at the beast, but there was another way out, one he’d longed to use for centuries.
Moloch moved closer, coming around the side of his bed.
This close, Gabriel could smell the stink of its fetid breath, and hear the rasp of claws on the linoleum floor.
