In This Skin (36 page)

    ”Mariah knows you are having a child.”Then he repeated what he'd said earlier. ”She is here for a purpose.”

    

    

    Noel was waiting for them.

    No he's not, Robyn corrected herself, he's seeing for the first time what Benedict and I have seen.

    They emerged from the void beneath the stage through the dwarf door;

    Ellery eased it shut so as not to disturb Mariah resting on the bed.

    Noel didn't see. Noel didn't hear. Noel sat in the armchair and stared in the direction of the stage, but not at it. From the expression of wonder on his face, he was seeing marvelous things.

    This was the same expression Thomas wore when the risen Christ invited him to touch the wound in His side made by the centurion's spear. Noel's face blazed, transformed by the expression of a man who gazed on a miracle.

    He breathed: ”It's happening…”

    Robyn walked forward with Benedict and Ellery flanking her. Her eyes followed Noel's line of sight. Ellery shone his torch to reveal a pearl-white area of light five feet wide and almost eight high. Hanging like a cotton bedsheet from a line on a windless day, it rose vertically from the floor. Mist spilled from the front of it. And a moment later Robyn shivered as she moved from the warm dry atmosphere of the Luxor into an envelope of chill moist air that smelled of autumnal woodland. A river of cooler air was spilling from the white shape that manifested itself on the Luxor dance floor. Noel stared at it-into it-seeing wonderful things.

    ”It's happening again,” Benedict said, hushed. ”The doorway has reopened.”

    ”It-it won't stay open long,” Ellery told them.

    They walked to stand beside Noel as he sat in the chair, gazing with rapt attention. The revolver rested on the arm of the chair, temporarily forgotten. He'd obviously woken and come looking for them, but something far more potent had attracted his attention.

    Robyn's heart rammed against her breastbone. It was like looking through a partially misted windowpane. But here and there through the fogged patches she could see huge trees reaching up toward a bone-white sky.

    Branches and trunks presented a mass of contorted gray limbs that erupted from a mass of fallen leaves. Above the tree line she could see distant hills that formed a wall of black between the trees and sky. And on one hillside perched a town. The town glowed as if it had been fashioned from the same stuff as a shining full moon. It burned with its own light, as if every stone and dome and tower radiated a silver glow. Above it, even though they were so far away as to be at the limits of visibility, birds circled in the sky above the citadel. Robyn had the impression of huge creatures that could soar for days on outstretched wings.

    The scene began to be overlaid by a dappling of denser fog patches.

    ”It's going.”Noel sounded disappointed. ”I can't see the city on the hill.”

    ”Incredible,”Benedict whispered. ”Incredible. It's more than a window into another world. It's a doorway. Can you feel the air flowing through? You can smell fallen leaves and the plants. It has an odor of mushroom and herbs.”

    Robyn moved forward with Benedict. It was more than curiosity. They were being drawn to that misty divide between this world and The Place, as Ellery had dubbed it. Benedict set down the light. He wanted to look closer before it vanished. He needed this opportunity to peer into another world; maybe he feared he'd never get another chance. Benedict was just a pace in front of Robyn. Ellery remained beside Noel, who still sat in the seat, gazing as if hypnotized.

    ”It's closing fast,”Benedict told them. The gray light filtering through the vertical oblong of mist had dimmed. The fogging effect had all but obscured the view of the forest. ”You know, this doorway doesn't have physical form or color. The misting effect is simply the warm air of the Luxor hitting the cold air of the forest. Water vapor is condensing into mist. See? It's even wetting the dance floor all around it.”He glanced back at Robyn with a delighted grin. ”Amazing. It's making it rain inside the Luxor.”He turned back to look through the opaque wall of white vapor.

    That was the moment a figure lunged through. Robyn had the impression of a gargoyle face, of an open mouth filled with thick brown teeth. Above that, two red eyes blazed. A pair of muscular arms thrust outward from the vapor, seized Benedict and dragged him back into the mist, where he vanished in a rippling swirl of whites and grays.

    Robyn heard no shouts. Nothing. Then… she was next.

    

    

    Robyn recoiled from the boiling mass of white. For within three seconds of Benedict West being dragged bodily into the mist, men burst out of it-Only not men. Creatures. One stood eight feet tall, spindly limbed as a giraffe, its thin neck topped by a small head that was almost monkeylike. Behind that came a shorter figure with thick powerful arms.

    It possessed an elongated face that was flat as a mule's and set with a pair of eyes that couldn't have been much larger than a rat's. Another figure lumbered through with the bulk of a pro wrestler. The naked body was a bluish white, patterned with a crosshatching of black lines that gave the skin the appearance of being tattooed with a net design. Robyn turned away to try to escape them. They snarled with fury and lust. The eager hands of the creature with the net-pattern flesh grabbed her, ripping the neck of her T-shirt so it all but tore the garment off one shoulder. Her feet slid under and she fell onto the floor. Noel tried to rise, grabbing the gun as he did so, but the spindle-limbed beast lashed out a bony arm and sent him rolling back over the armchair, knocking Ellery to the floor at the same time.

    Robyn looked up at the creature that pushed her savagely down to the boards of the dance floor. Its arms were so long it barely needed to stoop. Through the net pattern of its face it glared down at her. Even from here she could feel the force of the creature's breath blasting into hers. God, it stank of rotting things. With one thick fingered hand pushing down against her chest so firmly she might have been nailed to the dance floor, the second hand moved to her bare shoulder. There between thumb and forefinger it pinched the skin. What it saw through its red eyes pleased it. It gave a satisfied snort. Then the fingers hooked inside the T-shirt and ripped it free of her body.

    

    

    Logan believed he was free of the dope he'd smoked with Joe. Only that couldn't be, because his senses were fucked. When he reached the stage, toting the big motherfucker submachine gun, loaded with head-bustin' hollow-nosed slugs, its black body matching the feathery sheen of the motherfucking crows that swarmed like a disease all over the fucking roof, he thought: I'll be fucked.

    The fuck word was going to keep treading through his head for a whole while longer, too. In the light cast by a medley of flashlights, he saw the freakiest dance in the world sans music. Three monster guys leapt all over three regular dudes who lay on the floor… writhing on the floor… trying to avoid the monster guys.

    ”Fuck,” Logan said.

    ”Fuck,” Joe echoed.

    A naked monster guy was busily ripping the clothes off a long-legged woman, who lay flat on her back as it held her down with one hand, while a dude with arms and legs thin as bamboo canes beat up on two guys on the ground (fuck, it had to be the dope still monkeying around with the beer he'd drunk to create this wacky eyeball distortion).

    One thing Logan's eyes didn't lie about was the ID of one of the regular guys, the guy who'd punched him down in front of his buddies. Now that was total humiliation. Just seeing the stutter monkey Ellery Hann gyrating with Giraffe Boy sent his blood scalding through him.

    ”Fuck!” he yelled, pulled back the submachine gun bolt, aimed… knock out the big guys first, came the voice of common sense. The big guys might be mean dudes with guns. With them knocked out, then you can take your time making Eh-Eh-Ellery squeal for a while before you shut the fucking stutter for good.

    Squinting through the sight, he brought the bead onto the face of the blue-white net boy merrily ripping away the girl's clothes.

    Just a little squeeze, Logan. Don't empty the magazine.

    The machine gun made its own kind of stutter. Three rounds flew from the barrel like shooting stars, flying with an accuracy that even surprised Logan. They gracefully entered the blue-white man's face, bursting his head in a glorious sunburst of red. It slumped over the girl, legs twitching, butt jerking, like it was doing a post-mortem kind of fuck thing to the half-naked woman.

    ”Fuck!” Logan shouted. ”Joe! You going to leave me doing all the shooting?”

    Joe loosed off a couple of boozy rounds from his revolver. The bullets knocked white marks in the wall by the doors but were as wide as a country mile from hitting any of the guys on the dance floor.

    ”Fuck!” Logan snapped at Joe's crappola performance. Logan aimed again at the guy with the cane legs and arms and grapefruit-sized head.

    Squeeze the trigger. Nice and easy does it.

    The weapon kicked back in his hands. He'd intended to hose everyone down with what ammo was left in the 'zine. Only it shot off two rounds before jamming. ”FUCK!”

    Even so, it was enough to topple the tall stick man. He broke off trying to flail at Ellery with his whippy arms, turned back to the stage, noticing the gunmen for the first time, then looked down at his bony chest. Two boreholes sunk by the 9-mm slugs pumped a gusher of blood. The thin man stared at Logan in surprise, then dropped down onto the floor, its mouth making like a goldfish as it chewed on air, trying to draw it down into its ruined lungs.

    ”Here.” Logan thrust the jammed submachine gun out for Joe to take. ”Give me yours.” He held out his hand for Joe's pistol.

    Logan hadn't finished with Ellery Hann yet.

    

    

    Robyn saved them. She didn't realize at the time. It was only later that it came home to her. After she'd struggled from under the corpse of the blue-white creature, its head now sickeningly deflated after being hollowed out by the machine gun rounds, she'd grabbed a flashlight to see who was doing the shooting (her first thought had been: Cops!). By chance she grabbed the heavy-duty flashlight with the pistol grip. She'd aimed at the stage, thumbed the trigger button. Its dazzling white light had blasted the stage and the two guys who'd come to the rescue. Only they didn't look like rescuers. They wore torn denims, one a combat jacket; their hair hadn't encountered shampoo in weeks. From the way they stood groggily off balance, she guessed they were a little bit stoned, too.

    One held a submachine gun; the other was aiming with a handgun… aiming at Ellery. The powerful wash of light dazzled the two guys. Both used their free hands to shield their eyes.

    ”Robyn.” Ellery tugged her by the elbow. ”They… those… those men. They'll kill!”

    Ellery's statement got all the reinforcing it needed when the guy with the revolver peeled off a round. Blinded by the light, he'd fired a wild shot; the bullet parted the air five feet above their heads to smack into the wall.

    ”Robyn!”

    She didn't need a repeat warning. She was already running. Ellery stooped to grab a flashlight and ran, too. Picking up on her cue, he shone the light back at the two men to keep that glare in their eyes and spoil their aim. She glanced to see Noel slithering on all fours through the blood of the two fallen monstrosities.

    ”Noel, come on! Leave it!”

    But Noel wasn't leaving it. He found his gun beneath one of the bleeding creatures before running with a slip-sliding motion across the spilled blood. Even though he struggled to maintain his balance, he half turned at the waist and fired back at the two men. The bullet went nowhere near, but it was enough to make the two guys scatter in a crouching lope to the cover of backstage.

    By this time Robyn was remembering to try to cover her naked top half with the remains of the T-shirt as she ran. Five seconds later all three burst through the doors into the lobby. Noel motioned them toward the door that led to the apartment stairwell. Robyn nodded. The foyer with its Egyptian tomb paintings swirled past them in a blur. Above them, the Egyptian eye of their sun god painted on the ceiling gazed impassively down. It had witnessed drama and tragedy many times before at the Luxor.

    It would witness more before the next twenty-four hours were done.

    

    

    Safety is a relative state of affairs at the best of times, Robyn reflected as they locked the two sets of doors behind them. And this is as safe as we're going to get.

    Panting, Noel flopped down in the hallway with his back to the door, saying, ”They're going to have to get past me and Mr. Colt here.”He held up the gun. ”Holy Mary. I sure could make use of a soda.”

    ”And cleaning.”Ellery nodded at their bloodstained state. Only it wasn't their lifeblood but the crimson grue pumped from the wounded monsters.

    And apart from a few scuffs and bruises, the things had seriously hurt no one.

    Robyn told them she wouldn't be a minute. Quickly she cleaned herself up in the bathroom (although a shower would be lovely, it would have to wait) then she changed into sweatpants and a long-sleeved sweater. It was warm enough for a T-shirt but after the last encounter, she felt the need to cover up as much skin as possible. The creature's cold, damp touch still clung to her where it had pawed her naked shoulder. Ellery went to the bathroom next. This time she did hear the shower run, even if only for a moment or two. Robyn handed him one of her T-shirts to replace his, which now carried blood smears and gobs of monster brain.