The Deadliest Bite

Bergman had just lit a fuse.

He said, “So long, mo-fo,” growly, like he was just recovering from a bout of laryngitis. And then the back blew off the boot, smashing into the wal behind him, shattering a mirror that had been hanging there. He glanced over his shoulder, frowning. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. Maybe I have the power-boost too—”

He never finished his sentence, because out of the opening his leg had so recently fil ed shot a series of cannonbal s so smal they looked like marbles. Except they hit like vats of acid, leaving smoking holes that ate at the skin, growing larger with each second, making the Ichok scream and writhe with pain.

“Bed,” Cole panted.

I nodded, and without another word we charged. I fended off the Ichok’s weak attempts at defense as Cole drove it toward the narrowing gap between worlds, a door closing quickly behind Kyphas and the other sufferers like it was a living thing that knew we wanted to use it to our advantage.

Who knows? came the random thought, maybe it is. Maybe all the doors are. And that’s when I knew, as surely as I knew my dad would never stop bitching at me because that was the only way he could tel me he loved me. I’d stood at the threshold of such a door at each moment of my death, my soul about to shatter into thousands of diamond-like shards that would travel the universe, settling into my family, my friends, and other destinations I could only imagine. I’d communed with the creature that provided pathways into worlds beyond worlds. Felt her fire caress the gemlike skin of my being. And promised her, one day, that I’d return so she could fly me home. So now she was always near, letting me know the trail was clear, no matter which turn I chose to take.

With this thought fresh in my mind I snapped, “Open up,” at Kyphas’s door. “Or I swear I’l put a hole in you so big cement trucks wil be able to drive through it.” The door hesitated. Then slowly reversed course as Cole continued harrying the Ichok toward the bed, slamming it with slicing blows that left it looking like the victim of an old-time British Navy whipping. I slammed my heel into its knee, cracking it so soundly that my ears rang. It screamed and fel into the pit just as Cole swung his sword, cleanly decapitating the hel spawn just before it hurtled out of reach.

We turned to help Raoul, Dave, and Cassandra just in time to see Raoul shove his sword deep into the Ichok’s side while Dave’s lightning knife strike left the creature’s right arm limp and hanging.

“He’s going to spit!” Cassandra cried, but neither one of the men was in any position to prevent the strike. So she stepped in and dumped her enormous, beaded bag over its head just as it let go.

We could heard it scream as its venom hit fal ing tubes of lipstick, a paperback book, and a bright green cosmetics bag, not to mention a smal er purse ful of necessities and at least one ful bottle of Febreze. Some of its spit also dripped down onto its neck, where it began to eat into its skin like a plague of carnivorous beetles.

Dave caught a pair of handcuffs as they fel from the bag and locked them around the handles.

“Oh, baby,” murmured Cole. “I gotta know the story behind those puppies.”

“Shut up,” I said as I cranked my elbow into his ribs. “For al you know Cassandra’s a deputy sheriff.”

“Ha!” Cole’s laugh was cut short by another elbow. This one to his gut. One guess who threw it.

Now Dave and Raoul hefted the Ichok between them, shuffled it to the portal, and, after a three-count that al owed them to swing the creature into a nicely rhythmic arc, threw it into the pit. I don’t know if they aimed or it was just dumb luck, but the demon hit an empty stake about halfway down and impaled itself on it. The last thing I heard before the door closed was its screams.

Cole leaned over the abyss and yel ed to Kyphas, “Looks like your prophets were wrong, demon. In fact, you can just tel them they can kiss my ass!” Her smile, ghastly as it was, stil seemed to approve. “Even they can be blind sometimes,” she said. “It al depends on how they look at things.” She emphasized the word so clearly that I knew she was trying to send him a message. And then she threw her head back and screamed. I looked to see if one of the hydras had taken a fresh bite out of her arm, but she’d covered herself up again.

What I saw instead was that the fog was rising. Or maybe she was being swal owed within it.

“This door is closing,” Raoul said. “We need to leave the room in case something reaches through it at the last minute and manages to trap us inside it.”

“Could that real y happen?” Aaron asked me nervously.

“Just the fact that you can ask that question shows what a rookie you are,” I said. “Now, see how Bergman has hustled his butt to the hal way? There’s a guy who knows how to take physical threats seriously. You should fol ow his lead.”

“Except when it comes to raiding old cemeteries, right, buddy?” said Cole, slapping Bergman on the back as he joined him outside the room.

“Huh,” was Bergman’s pale-faced response. Thank goodness Astral had witnessed that event or we might never have known the extent of his heroics. “What about the bed?” he asked Raoul as he, Vayl, and I joined him in the hal .

Raoul said, “By morning very little wil be left to show that the room was once a gate to hel .” We looked around at each other. Raoul seemed the worse off for injuries, having been cut deeply in a couple of places. Cole and I had each taken minor wounds to the arms that we hadn’t even felt until this moment. Vayl’s two chest wounds were already closing. Dave, Cassandra, and Bergman hadn’t been touched. We’d been lucky, we knew that. Hel wouldn’t be so kind the next time.

Vayl wondered aloud, “Wil we be safe here or should we move on immediately?”

“I can make us safe for at least an hour,” Raoul replied. “It wasn’t like we were going to tackle that gate anyway. Our scouts wil find us a much less wel -traveled route.” Cole snorted. “Which the prophets have already seen.”

Cassandra said, “Kyphas was trying to tel you something about that. I think there’s a way to cloud their vision.”

“I agree,” Raoul said.

“Then I need to consult my Enkyklios. And Astral,” she added. “If there’s a way, I’l find it.” Vayl nodded. “Do