8 Gone is the Witch (38 page)

I backed away and told Ursula
and Jerome to get themselves out of sight. I then spun up a zip ball and came around Carlos in hopes of heading off the alphadyte as soon as Tony passed. “Stand down old man. I got this.”

Of course, Carlos wouldn’t have it. He pushed me aside and came back around me. “Get out of here, Lilith! You’re going to get hurt.”

I dropped my shoulder and plowed back into him, forcing him into a staggered sidestep. “No, I got this.”

He reclaimed his footing and body checked me to the ground. I landed flat on my ass
, and my zip ball ended up somewhere in a pile of alphadyte guts where it continued to sizzle and short-circuit before popping like a balloon with a dull thud.

“Carlos fucking Rodriquez
! I can’t believe you just knocked me to the ground!”

“Damn it! Run!” yelled
Tony. He was practically on us, and I was beginning to think he had a good idea, seeing that the alphadyte seemed a smite bit larger up close than it did from further back.

Carlos must have thought so, too. He
helped me to my feet and began easing me back with him.

I
realized the moment Tony passed us and kept on going that he indeed had the best idea. Because it seemed easier to outrun a wounded alphadyte than it did to confront it, Carlos and I quickly made tracks and followed Tony’s retreat.

It
might have been a good plan if poor Tony, exhausted, in considerable pain and completely out of breath, hadn’t fallen to the ground just a few steps further. Carlos and I helped him up. We each took an arm, draped it over our shoulders and dragged him off to... Well, I would have said safety, but who am I kidding?

Up ahead, Ursula wav
ed us on. She and Jerome had taken cover behind two large conifers. Both took turns stepping out and retreating again behind the trees. They had something planned. I only hoped it was good.

“Come on,” I said to Carlos. “
They’ve got something up their sleeves. Hurry!”

Tony regained enough strength to carry most of his own weight, but his bad ankle continued to trip him up. Without Carlos
and me holding him, he wouldn’t have made it. As it was, he almost didn’t.

I could hear the crush of dried leaves and snapping twigs
erupting behind us as we reached the two trees. The alphadyte was within reach. Why he didn’t snatch Carlos, Tony or me when he had the chance, I’ll never know.

Just as we slipped
between the two trees, Ursula emerged with a marvelous little zip ball. It was smaller than her last, but it danced in her hand with the nervous excitement that is the hallmark of great ones.

“Now!” she yelled.

I knew Carlos hadn’t figured out what was about to happen, so I took matters into my own hands... or feet, as the case may be. I reached out and kicked Carlos from behind, entangling my foot between his legs. The three of us went down just as Ursula launched her zip ball.

The damn thing whistled
over our heads, missing old monkey ass by mere inches. It hit a tree and exploded on contact, shredding bark like confetti and blinding the alphadyte enough to push him back several steps.

The animal regrouped, shook the peppered bits from its face and started towards us again.

While Ursula reloaded, Jerome swooped in low and grabbed Tony’s bayonet. He then hopped on the alphadyte’s shoulder and began stabbing it in the neck and head.

The beast
reeled back, swelled its chest and roared. Its mouth was huge, its teeth fearsome. Long. Sharp. Serrated. It tried to hook Jerome with its massive claws, but its powerful arms were too bulky, and the severed tendons in its shoulder made a desperate reach of the bayonet impossible.

Ursula
, meanwhile, spun up another zip ball, but fear of launching it at the creature with Jerome still on its back made that option too dangerous.

The creature let out
an agonizing roar. Jerome’s blade had struck a major artery. Blood squirted from its neck, back, arms, chest and head. Still, the obstinate beast refused to die. It twisted and bucked its repulsive frame like a bronco attempting to throw its rider.

“Jerome!” I shouted. “Jump!”
I turned to Ursula. “Fire at its balls.”

It’s f
unny that she couldn’t hit the creature when aiming at its four-foot wide chest, but give her a target the size of two grapefruits between its legs and she’s all over it.

I think I saw Carlos and Tony wince when the
zip ball tore through monkey ass’ scrotum and blew his nuts clean off. I sure didn’t wince when it brought him down, though. Seriously, that boy was hurt`n.

We all gathered around the mortally wounded creature and awed at its sheer size
, amazed that we were able to bring it down at all. Such a formidable goliath could have easily shredded us limb-by-limb had he gotten a hold on us.

Even lying on the ground, dying as he was, I still didn’t feel comfortable in its presence.
I felt that with every labored breath the animal took, he still had the capacity to spring back to life and sink its teeth into any one of us.

In truth, however, its last breaths were numbered.

I didn’t know if satisfaction, sympathy or respect motivated Carlos to do what he did next, but I have to think it was a little of all three when he did it.

While the hapless creature lay on the ground, moaning, bleeding and just generally sounding pa
thetic, Carlos unsheathed his bolo, stepped up to the beast, hacked open its chest and unceremoniously cut out its heart. It was a real Lord of the Flies moment; I give you that, but somehow it seemed appropriate.

When asked why he did
it, he answered, “It’s a message for Doctor Lowell. Show him that he can’t fuck with us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“
You think monkey ass and Doctor Lowell are connected somehow?”

“Of course.
You saw them. These creatures were like guard dogs, his first line of defense. You noticed how they all wore leather collars?”

“Yes.”

He pointed at the alphadyte. “This one’s wearing a black one. The others wore brown. And see here.” He ran his finger along a series of notches cut into the band. “Those are kills. This guy was accomplished.”

“
Good deduction, Sherlock.”

“Well, I am a detective,
you know?” He eased his shoulder under Tony’s arm and the two started away. I noticed Tony favoring his ankle even more.

I turned to Ursula.
“You okay?”

She brushed her cheek with the back of her hand and blew the bangs from her eyes. “Aye. `Tis all in a day’s work.”

“How `bout you, Kermit?”

Jerome thumped his chest with his fist. “Kermit good. Malodyte dead.”

“Yeah.” I reached down and gave the squirt a pat on the head. “Malodyte dead. You did all right, kid.”

The three of us
turned and started after Carlos and Tony.

Chapter Twenty-one

The clearing
surrounding the fortress turned out to be just a stone’s throw from where we killed monkey ass. Now, only a few hundred yards separated us from Doctor Lowell.

As I observed during our flyover, the fortress, or castle as Carlos insisted we call it,
seemed a bit modest, even by medieval standards. Still, with thirty-foot high walls, guard towers on each corner and a genuine mote to contend with, I knew we’d have our work cut out for us.

From a hunkered down position just inside the tree line, we hatched our plan.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” said Tony. “You got a thousand feet separating the two guard towers overlooking the field. The switch grass here is about a meter high. It should provide good cover. The barrel fires they got burning up in each tower ought to blind them somewhat to what’s going on down below. If we stay low all the way to the drawbridge, I think we can make it without anyone seeing us.”

“Good plan,” said Carlos. “Then what?”

Tony looked at me. I knew he had nothing. “Then we go from there.”

“Okay. Works for me.”

We headed out across the field, the first half in a duck walk, the rest of the way on our hands and knees.

As Tony predicted, the
tall switch grass proved most advantageous, and the relative darkness, despite the orange cracks of light streaking through the sky, made our crossing quick and easy. Once we reached the other side, we scooted one-by-one through a patch of open dirt and then slipped beneath the drawbridge.

“There,” said Tony. “That was simple.”

“Yeah, maybe too simple,” Carlos replied.

“What does that mean?”

“It means what if Lowell heard all the commotion from the explosions. First that, and now his top dog doesn’t return?”

“He’s right,” I said. “
He may be expecting us, luring us into a trap.”

“Let him lure,” said Tony. “We’ve come this far. We’re not turning back.”

“I know that, but we can’t go busting in like bulls in a china shop. We have to go stealthy.”

“I can be stealthy
,” said Carlos.

I shook my head. “No, you can’t. You’re the consummate bull.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying Tony and I have to go this alone.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re witches. We can employ magick to evade capture.”

“I can do magick. You saw me drag fire with just a point of my finger.”

“Yeah? Do some magick now.”

“Now?”

“
Yeah. Show me what you can do and we’ll let you come with us.”

He
scoffed and looked away. “Don’t really feel like it right now.”

“Hmm, that’s what I thought.”

“What be thy wish for me?’ asked Ursula.

I looked at Tony. He gave me the high brow to shut that thought down fast. “Yeah, see Ursula. Here’s the thing, baby. No.”

Tony said to Carlos and Ursula, “Listen. We need you two out here. You’re going to be our lookouts. If you see anything out of the ordinary, I want you to scream, whistle, make whatever noise you can and then get the hell out of here. I hope that the distraction you cause will afford us the opportunity to escape undetected. Can you do that?”

“I can do that,” Carlos answered.

“Ursula?”

“Aye
, if it be thy wish.”

“Jerome?”

“No! I go witchew!”

“You can’t. You don’t––”

“Whoa!” I said. “Where’d he go?”

Carlos poked the space where Jerome had just been sitting.
“He didn’t go anywhere. He’s still here.”

“
That sneaky little no-see-um. He’s camouflaged.

Tony
sighed. “Unbelievable.”

Jerome
popped back in. “I go now?”

I looked at Tony. “Can’t
say that’s not magick.”

“Fine
. He can go.”

With Carlos in a pout, Tony, Jerome and I swam across the mote and emerged on high ground beneath a sprawlin
g
Blackwood tree. Tony calculated the top of the tree at twenty-eight feet, the wall at thirty.

“Think we can do it?”

“You know the top three feet of that tree can’t support us,” I said. “That’s a five foot deficit.”

“So
it’s a yes?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” He turned to Jerome. “The lightest one goes first. If you need help, I’ll––”

Before
he could finish, Jerome shimmied up the tree and disappeared over the wall. We both stood there, dazzled, blinking up at the tiny bits of tree bark floating down in his wake.

“Wow,” I said.

“Yup, wow.”

“Fucker’s quick
, eh?”

“Yeah
, he’s quick. Gotta give him that.”

I was still looking up when Tony nudged me. “Come on. You’re next.”

I climbed up on the first branch, stopped and looked down. “Wait. What about your ankle?”

“It’s fine.”

“Can you climb a tree?”

“You’re
just now asking?”

“I’m just
now thinking about it.”

He reached up, palmed my butt and gave me a push.
“Get up there.”

I climbed to the highest branch I could before the tree began to bend and sway under my weight. There wasn’t much of a breeze, which made me worry
that the guards would notice something was up. I considered backing down, but Tony was right there, his extra weight on the upper part of the trunk likely compounding the problem.