Cain (17 page)

That fast.

Cain was nearly motionless and in the next second was roaring forward in a wave and Soloman fired blind as a fist smashed into his chest.

He bellowed as he flew back, the shotgun somehow torn from his hands,
then hit the floor hard and rolled back and up, drawing the .45 to fire instantly. He saw Cain coming over him and a half-dozen rounds thundered bright into the air, a boom-blinding strobe in the room.

Cain took the rounds to the chest and arm as he closed and then he
struck the pistol aside and hit Soloman again, blasting him back. Brutally stunned, Soloman was thrown hard from a wall and hurled a wild blow that Cain deflected with contempt, returning his own.

Cast into another world by the murderous impacts of the blows, Soloman
staggered away wildly off-balance. It was like getting hit by a cannon and in a breathless red haze Soloman struggled for air and life, knowing somehow that the steel shock-plate was dented. And something else didn't feel right in his chest and leg but he had no time …

In the next breath Cain threw
Soloman aside so that he crashed into a marble statue that he grabbed wildly from the pedestal but he fell to the floor and it shattered in his arms. Struggling violently to reorient himself, Soloman rolled over white shards, groaning.

No time for this
!

Get up
!

G
ET UP
!

Staggering numbly to his feet, he whirled as Cain closed again like a panther playing with a dog and he knew the monstrosity was going to kill him slowly, just as he realized that any of the blows would have already killed if Cain had used even slightly more force.

Cain laughed as Soloman rose shocked and breathless and drenched in wild sweat, searching desperately for anything that could give him a faint fighting chance. He moaned in pain as he clutched his chest, dimly realizing that the ballistic vest had been shredded.

He knew that in normal combat the sheer concussion of the blows would have rendered him unconscious, but a fantastic survival base was in command now, a part of his mind that compelled him to survive on instinct and training because courage had fled.

No, he told himself, I won't fall.

Stumbling, he cursed savagely as he tripped backwards over a small golden couch. And Cain roared in laughter, horrific bestial fangs violen
tly exploding from his jaws like prehistoric tusks. The hellish mirth made his face fiendish, fangs hurling back the light with an ultimate killing wrath.

Shocked at the sight,
Soloman rose again and angled to the side, gasping. Then in a rumbling storm Cain came closer and he found the strength to focus, recovering. Committed to taking Cain with him, he reached up to curl a finger tightly through the pin of a grenade strapped to his chest.

Eyes narrowing suddenly, Cain halted in place. He glanced at the grenade clutched in
Soloman's trembling hand and a smile came to him slowly. "Ah ... a sacrificial move," he growled, clearly amused. "How frightening. Should I flee from you?"

Soloman
frowned.

"I'm the last, Cain. Not even you will survive this."

Cain laughed, taking his time. His bloodthirsty joy was unforced and unconcealed. "You pleasure me," he smiled. "Before I take your life, I want to know your name. You are worth remembering."

Soloman
tightened his finger even more in the ring. "It's Soloman. You've got three seconds to remember it."

With ghas
tly mirth Cain laughed again, throwing back his head. Solo-man was confused for a moment and then knew what the giant was planning to do, and he pulled the grenade pin with the thought, hurling himself aside before—

It was too quick.

In a black roar Cain's forearm caught him viciously across the neck, clotheslining him. Then a taloned hand lashed out like lightning to tear the grenade from his vest and Cain whirled in the same heartbeat, hurling the grenade across the room where it detonated in an explosion that brought down marble and ceiling and plaster, sending a superheated shockwave to the cavernous walls.

Lost in rage,
Soloman shouted in pain as he staggered up, fumbling frantically for another grenade and then Cain was there, a human lion roaring with the strength of twenty men. Soloman never even saw the arm that lashed out to somersault him and then he was being raised to his feet again, lifted cleanly from the floor. The remaining three grenades were instantly torn from his vest and hurled to the side.

Red eyes
...

Snarling fangs
...

Cain growled before him.

Cain's scarlet glare was narrow with wrath and Soloman knew it was over. There was nothing left to do. He frowned at the breath that flowed from the fangs, breath hot with the stench of a world of blood and death and the grave.

"Yes," Cain whispered as
Soloman's head rolled in half-consciousness, "you were, indeed, a worthy opponent. But, no, not my last victim." He leaned forward as the fangs touched the skin of Soloman's neck to—

"
Adjuro vos
!
Futige, partes adversae
!"

Soloman
never knew where he landed but even in his shock he recognized the voice and knew Cain had hurled him aside to confront the Exorcist. In seconds he rolled to a knee to see Marcelle standing alone in the middle of the room.

The priest stood grim and enraged
with a large silver crucifix extended in a single hand and then Soloman stumbled weakly to the side, stumbling, finally finding a single grenade. He clipped it reflexively to his waist and staggered further, gaining distance, as Cain walked slowly toward the priest, his head tilted as if he could not believe the futile challenge.

His face distorted with horrible courage, Marcelle slashed the crucifix in the air as he thundered, "Begone ye hostile powers! Depart thou infernal creation! And do not think to despise the words of this sinner who dost serve the Lord of Hosts who Himself hurled ye headlong from the heights to thine infernal reckoning!"

Another cross was cut with violent wrath.

"Yield to God!" the Jesuit shouted. "Yield to the Lord of Hosts before whose countenance thou dost eternally tremble!
Discedite ergo nunc
! Begone! Begone I say!
Ecce Crux Domini, fugite, partes adversae
!
Vincit leo de tribu juda, radix David
!"

Cain halted in place for a frozen moment, as if he expected something to happen at the words. Then with a smile that reflected the purest blood
thirst, he laughed.

Moving forward.

Without any indication of fear Marcelle boldly stepped into the confrontation, slashing a terrific image of the cross in the face of the beast. "Begone thou seducer!" he raged. "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth who Himself hurled thee down to the dwelling of the Serpent, I cast thee out! Begone I say! Begone! The blood of Christ compels thee! The blood of Christ compels thee! The blood of Christ compels thee!"

With a growl that came from an intensifying black animal center, Cain snatched the priest by the vestment and pulled him close to the monstrous fangs. And Marcelle's hand instan
tly gripped the giant's wrist as they strained. Then the priest's teeth clenched in the fiendish test of strength and a breath exploded from him. Cain's horrific face split in a jagged smile and Marcelle gasped, overwhelmed.

As
Soloman lifted the shotgun from the floor.

"Cain!"

Spitefully, Cain spun his head.

Soloman
centered the shotgun on the copy of the Grimorium Verum, still lying on the small table. "Let him go!" he gasped. "Let him go now or I'll destroy the book!"

Cain snarled.

Taking a single step forward Soloman raised the shotgun to his shoulder to lock a solid aim. "Let him go now, Cain! This'll vaporize that thing! You've got two seconds!"

Cain let Marcelle fall to the ground and for a moment seemed to grow even larger and more terrifying in his wrath. With a narrow glance he
measured the distance, determining whether he could leap between Soloman and the book before Soloman made the shot.

"You'll never make it,"
Soloman whispered, concentrated. Not even Cain was that fast and the giant seemed to realize it. If Cain moved at all – if he even flinched – Soloman could make the shot.

Frustration blazed on Cain's vicious countenance as Marcelle gained solid footing at last. And the priest still held the crucifix in his hand, as if he could never release it. Nor did he appear shocked at the savage encounter. In seconds he once more held his grim countenance, casting a grateful nod to
Soloman.

Smoke and spiraling flames rose along the museum walls to cast the cavernous chamber in an infernal light, a gathering roar.

Cain shook his head, smoldering. The hair along his head rose like the mane of an enraged lion and his entire essence seemed electrified. Then, slowly, a shadow of defeat fell across the dark countenance. His growl thundered beneath the room, despising all strength but his own.

"Fools!" he snarled, glaring wrathfully at
Soloman. "You dare to challenge me?" He frowned with contempt. "You are nothing! Flesh and blood and bone! Don't you know me yet, Soloman? Don't you know who you've challenged? I ruled this world millions of years before you were ever born!"

He shook his head. "It was mine! All mine! And taken from me only because I dared to raise my throne against the Most High! You think you
can defeat one who warred with
God
? You think you can defeat one who struck down great Michael to the Earth? Do you!"

His eyes blazed.
" You with your meaningless weapons! Can you name the nations I've destroyed? No! You know nothing! And that is your doom! You challenge one who made the continents tremble! One who reduced the proudest empires of this world to ruin! You think you have won but you have won nothing! I shall take my revenge on you and it shall be sweet! You think to defend the girl? Bah! She is already mine! I will take her and all you love and before you die you yourself will belong to me!" He cast a glance at the manuscript, raised an embered glare. "You will know death a thousand times, Soloman. You and all you love. For there is nothing that can defeat me! You wish to know me? Then know this! I am the beast that feasts on your children in the night! Yes! Your children! Know all you have ever loved and lost and you will know me! Then know your own death! For it is all mine!"

Cain took a stride.

Soloman's voice trembled and he centered the shotgun, speaking low, "Take one more step, Cain, and I'll blast that manuscript into dust. This is the last time I'll warn you."

"Destroy it!" Fangs grated as the
monstrous form continued to advance. "Play your meaningless role in this act! For in time I will remember all it contains because
I am its author
! Then it will mean nothing! Yes! Its author! I am the one who opened the gateway! The one who crossed that hateful void to conquer this world!"

Soloman
tried to steel his nerves again but he was shaken to his bones by the otherworldly rage and tone. Then Marcelle stepped forward to cut the cross, shouting, "
Dicas mihi nomen tuum
—"

Cain whirled.

"
I will tell you nothing, priest
!" he bellowed. "Not in this lifeless flesh!" He pointed at Soloman. "They have done this, priest! Not me! They resurrected this flesh to live in death as Aaron's staff! It was man who violated nature! Yes! Man! Not me! So there is no soul within this body to save!" He started toward the priest. "This flesh is rightfully mine! All mine! And your rituals can go with you to the grave!"

Marcelle thundered with biblical wrath, "You cannot prevail! Is this the one who made the nations tremble? Tell me! Oh, how fallen! How changed! How horrible that such glory is brought to such ruin!"

At the defiant challenge Cain's fangs extended sharply, eyes burning in narrow embers. Then, the jaws unhinged even further and he took a maddened step, moving toward the priest. His snarl was inhabited storm.

"You will be defeated!" Marcelle shouted, his face white with the stress of the conflict. He pointed violently with the crucifix. "
Man may have opened this gateway but God shall close it
!"

Cain roared like a lion as he leaped and
Soloman spun to fire from the hip, the slug hitting dead-center, hurling the goliath back wildly. The impact was powerful and ravaging enough to slam Cain against a marble column but he came off it like a hound of hell, lifting razored talons, and Soloman realized it wasn't enough, that nothing would be enough!

The giant hit the floor in a red blaze and
Soloman fired as fast as he could pull the trigger until Cain twisted behind another column, evading the horrific onslaught. Then from somewhere behind him Soloman heard a heated command and whirled to see Malo and the Delta commandos running forward.