Paranormal Realities Box Set (35 page)

The prince laughed. “Intoxicating!” he shouted
to the sky. He whirled but as he completed the circuit, he stumbled, which made
him giggle.

“Where’sssss…” His words were slurred as
he staggered about.

The prince seemed drunk. Drunk on my
blood.

The prince stumbled again.

“Highness” Eugene stepped in to grab him
by the arm. “Are you ill?”

“I am vampire!” Prince Leopold shouted.
“No illness…How…”

The prince spun around and stared at me
for long seconds. “What have you…Did you?” His gaze went to the messenger bag.
“Those plants. You ate…Then I…”

Eugene glared at me. “You ate the
Woundwort? But that could—”

“Put the prince in a coma,” I finished
for him.

The prince, bleary eyed and
uncoordinated, stumbled to Gethin in his wheelchair. “Do something,” Prince
Leopold screamed, gripping the arms of the chair and shaking it. “You must…”

A smile slowly spread across Gethin’s
face.

“No, Highness. I do not need to do
anything. You will fall into a coma and I will do nothing.”

 
“Not do…You?” The prince’s eyes widened in shock and then his
eyes reddened with rage. “Traitor,” he screamed.

Prince Leopold's arm rose before swinging
down, striking the wizard on the side of the head. The wheelchair flew across
the walkway, skidded and rolled to the bridge's edge. When it crashed into the
barrier, the chair jerked and the wizard was thrown out. The grinning Gethin
lay on the walkway, placing a hand to his head.

The vampire entourage had commenced
chattering to one another. A few words— “coma”, “weak”, and
“defeated”—were audible. The expressions on their various faces turned
contemptuous as they eyed the prince. One member of the group stepped forward
clearing his throat.

“Highness,” the vampire said. “There is
clearly no portal to another world, merely a plot by this human to set a trap. One
which you have fallen into, I might add.” The others nodded in agreement. “We
have decided to go and not endanger ourselves in the open this way on a fool’s
errand.”

At the words “fool’s errand” a laugh
burst from me. I couldn’t help remembering my discussions with Rom about our
“fool’s errand.”

The prince rounded and fixed me with his
red, penetrating glare. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rom move but the two
ghouls at his shoulder held him back.

“You traitor,” The prince cried pointing
at the lead vampire spokesman. His arm made a wide sweeping gesture. “All
traitors.” He stumbled to a guard. “Sssseize them,” he stammered.

The guard, seemingly confused, glanced at
two other guards as if asking them what to do. Then he simply shrugged.

“Ahhhhhhhhhgggggggg,” the prince screamed
and turned toward me again.

With another scream he charged at me. His
hands were raised as if he would tear me apart. I scrambled backward, but he
moved with lightning speed. Before I could blink, his hands were wrapped around
my throat.

This was it
, I thought.
Gone. Dead. Over
.

But the prince exerted no pressure. With
his hands at my neck, his red eyes rolled back in his head so that only pinkish
whites were visible. He slowly slumped to the ground. As he went down, I pushed
his body away from me and he landed in a crumpled heap at my feet. He lay there
unconscious. In a coma.

Rom broke away from his captors and ran
in my direction. Shouting to Juliette and Billy to follow also, I sprinted for
the door to the south tower—the door to the vortex if I could open it. At
the moment the four of us reached the door, an explosion from around the foot
of the north tower shook the walkway.

The members of the vampire entourage
screamed and squealed. They ran toward the door of the south tower…the one I
should be opening into a vortex. A second explosion sounded, rocking us, from
the south tower base. The vampire elite turned and headed in the opposite
direction.

The ghoul guard soldiers threw down their
lanterns. They milled about in confusion as to what to do with their rifles and
swords. An officer stepped out and shouted orders. I hoped it didn’t include
shooting us.

Just as a ghoul guard turned his weapon
on our group, a shot rang out, followed by a barrage.

Omigod they’re shooting at us
, I thought.

But we weren’t hit. Instead, the ghoul
guards fell one after another to the walkway with oozing black wounds. I
realized the gunfire was coming from the opposite walkway. A group of at least
twenty resistance fighters stood up from the prone positions that had
previously hidden them from our view. They had weapons trained on the vampires
and ghouls. Amy stood to one side yelling orders.

With the confusion—the chaos of
gunfire, the screaming and the explosions—around us, Juliette, Billy, Rom
and I huddled at the door. Blood from the prince’s bite coated the hand I’d
used to stem the flow. I smeared it on the door then grasped my great
grandmother’s necklace and tore at it. The metal chain cut into the skin of my
neck before breaking. I pressed the swirling circle disc to the blood smear
praying this would work.

Nothing happened.

I glanced at my watch. Zero hours, four
minutes, thirty-two seconds.

“Open it,” Billy screeched. “Hurry up!”

“Shush it,” Rom yelled at Billy. “Can you
not see she tries?”

A bullet ripped into the door just above
Rom’s head, the wood splintering. Behind us, resistance soldiers poured onto
the walkway from the north tower door. Hand-to-hand fighting began.

“She’s not trying hard enough,” Billy
jeered. “You’re a loser, Taylor. Loser. You hear me. You—”

“Quit being a douchebag,” Juliette
yelled—The first time I’d ever heard her raise her voice. “Shut up and
let her work.”

Thinking for a moment back to when I’d
opened the vortex before, I remembered the whirl was counter-clockwise. My
great grandmother’s disc was counter clockwise. Perhaps since we were on the
opposite side of the portal…

In the bottom of the messenger bag I
found the spade, its edge sharp.

“Cut my hand,” I said, pushing it at
Billy. “Just don’t cut it off.”

Billy didn’t hesitate, he scraped the
edge on my palm and a line of blood welled. Pressing my newly bloodied hand to
the wood, I swirled a clockwise circle design with the blood.

Almost immediately, a boom sounded. A
glow emerged and pulsed. The wood finally began to move. At first the movement
creaked and jerked but soon turned smoothly. The velocity of the turning
increased and broadened in area from a quarter size to a dinner plate.

“It’s happening,” Billy said, his eyes
wide.

Yes, but would it be fast enough for us
to get through?

The fighting came closer and closer to
us. Glancing back, I saw the resistance had surrounded the vampire elite and
were systematically staking them. Eugene, with a furious expression on his
face, stomped toward Gethin at the edge of the walkway. The wizard seemed
incapable of resisting as Eugene hoisted him onto the top of the barrier.

Feeling the vortex sucking at me, I
turned my attention back and saw the circling area had further expanded and now
was at least the size of a washer drum.

Juliette turned to me with an excited
smile and a light in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but, before any
words came out, she was sucked into the quickening vortex and disappeared from
sight.

Billy jumped in after her. Almost
immediately Namia, still wrapped in her blanket bundle, came flying through and
almost knocked Rom and me over. We were forced back several feet to avoid being
struck. When she’d rolled to a stop, I pushed Rom forward. He resisted me.

“Go.” I pushed at him again.

“Not without you.”

I couldn’t help myself; my gaze was drawn
back to Eugene and Gethin. I saw Eugene pushing at Gethin. The wizard tumbled
over the side where he hung with one arm hooked through the rail. Eugene jabbed
at the wizard’s arm, trying to make him to let go.

My gaze went to the vortex. I should go.
I should jump through now before it was too late. I owed no debt to the wizard.
Gethin had done me no favors. His actions were for himself. Besides, hadn't
Prince Leopold said the wizard was immortal?

“I’m coming too,” I screamed at Rom.
“Go.” This time when I pushed him, the combination of my efforts and the
sucking power of the vortex swept him in. But somehow I couldn’t follow him.
The prince had also said there were ways to extinguish the life force of
immortals. Perhaps Gethin could be “extinguished” by water.

For some reason, I just couldn’t let
Gethin hang there only to possibly die in the river beneath this bridge.
It's the damn
bridge
, I thought. Letting someone —anyone—fall reminded me too
much of Adam.

Turning away from the vortex, I picked up
a fallen sword and dashed toward the edge of the walkway.

“Get away from him,” I yelled.

Eugene glanced at me but continued to
pound away at the wizard’s hold on the rail. Just before the tip of the sword
in my hand struck Eugene, he looked at me. The blade nicked his side and he
screamed like a baby. When I waved the sword threateningly again, Eugene ran
off, scurrying over to where Prince Leopold lay. He grasped the prince’s inert
body under the arms and began dragging his monarch along the walkway toward the
north tower. He disappeared behind a group of ghoul soldiers.

 
I grabbed at Gethin’s arm, gripping it with both hands. My
fingers were slick with blood and the weight of the wizard pulled me forward. I
soon found myself with my belly pressed to the barrier and the top half of me
hanging over. I clung to Gethin as he dangled above the Thames' water.

“Please.” The wizard's eyes were wide and
pleading as he stared up at me. “Let me go.” His arm slipped away from me but I
managed to hang onto his hand.

“No,” I cried. “Hold onto me and I can
pull you up.”

“I want to be encased by the water for
all eternity.” He opened his hand and tugged it. “You would do me a kindness to
let me go. I will be at peace.”

“No,” I screamed, but it was too late and
his hand slipped out of mine.

As he fell, Gethin continued to stare up
at me, smiling...until he disappeared into the darkness.

The vortex had already decreased in size.
It was closing
,
I thought with panic. No time to lose. I ran, preparing to jump through. As my
lead foot hit the swirling middle, hands came from nowhere and grabbed me from
behind, stopping me with a jerk. Swinging me by the arm, they brought me around
to face Sergeant Amy.

Soot covered almost every inch of her
face, but I knew her nevertheless.

“Amy,” I screamed tugging hard against
her grip. “Let me go. I have to get back through the portal right now. It's
about to seal.”

“I know.” She smirked. “I only wanted to
thank you for setting up the prince and his minions.” She inclined her head
back toward the fighting. “It’s a slaughter.” She grinned and released my arm.

Only Amy would get me killed to thank me.

“The general wants to thank you, too.” Amy
saluted me.

“Yeah, whatever.” I backed toward the
dwindling vortex. “Good luck.”

The vortex had lost much of its sucking
power and was now the size of a basketball hoop. Stretching out my arms, I
inserted them into the center of the whirl and then dove in. The power of the
vortex had diminished to such an extent that my movement inside felt like
running up a mountain through sludge. The electric sparks that had been a
familiar sight in my previous experiences weren’t so vivid. Just a few random
flashes here and there. As a result, the inside of the portal tunnel was
significantly darker.

Would I be able to get through this thing
before it sealed me inside? Would I be trapped in a cosmic esophagus forever?
My heart leaped into my throat so hard, I could have easily coughed it up.

The end was nowhere in sight. I hadn’t
even spotted the ghoul who’d crossed in my place. Had something happened to
her? If so…

Thankfully, at the moment I contemplated
my own demise and the possibility of purgatory in a throat muscle, I spotted
her. Above and ahead of me, the female ghoul floated along with the young man
who’d crossed in Rom’s place.

Why was that guy still in the vortex?
Hadn’t Rom passed through? He’d entered the vortex well ahead of me.

Realization struck when I saw the young
man and the ghoul had sandwiched Rom between them. The long trailing end of the
rope the prince had ordered to bind Rom’s hands was now being wrapped around
his body by the ghoul with the help of the human.

With some veering and wiggling and what
amounted to swimming, I managed to reach the ghoul. But with the “sludge” or
Jell-O or whatever it was around me, the punch I threw at her head moved in
extreme slow motion. Fortunately, so did she and the punch connected with the
side of her head. Grabbing her by the hair, I dragged her away from Rom and
tried to thrust her toward the Dorcha end of the vortex. Her mouth opened in a
silent screech and she floated away.