Blessed (25 page)

Weary from the battle that had taken place, he all but crawled his way up the few steps to the doors. Instead of savoring the moment, he simply uncaged the beast and let it ravish everything in sight.

When nothing was left around him except for the ash drifting down around him and a glowing green orb, he reached out a tentacle and let the energy flow into him.

“Three down, one to go.” He said as the energy coursed into him.

He turned from the destruction and let himself fade away.

He hung up the phone and looked at the three women that were pouring over the map he had retrieved from his glove compartment.

“That was the council. We just lost four guardians in Omaha and he got what he was after. Best guess is he’ll hit Denver next before coming here.”

The three women glanced back and forth between him and the map several times before looking at one another and attacking the map with a newfound zeal. They were pointing and talking over the top of each other, trying to come to an agreement on which route the beast would take. He decided that standing back and letting them handle it was the best idea for all parties involved. He had no desire to lose a finger or worse by getting in their way.

“Now why would he cut all the way up through Wyoming to drop down into Salt Lake? If he’s heading to Denver I’d put my life on it that he would continue along Interstate 70 and come up 15. It’s more direct and less of a hassle!” Piper shouted.

“You may be willing to bet
your
life on it, darling, but it’s not just
your
life on the line here, now is it?” Barbara countered.

“Ladies.” Arlene interjected. “There’s no need to fight over this. Either one of you could be right. He could very well continue along 70 into Utah. It is just as likely that he will cut up to I-80 and drop down through Wyoming. The question here really isn’t which way is he going to take for sure. We need to figure out what his options are and what we can do to prepare for all of them. This is Chaos incarnate we’re talking about here. There is no way to predict exactly what is going on in that twisted mind of his.”

He took this opportunity to jump in on Arlene’s seemingly logical train of thought.

“She’s right. We really can’t predict what he’s going to do. He could have already decided that this is where she is and could skip Denver all together.”

When all three of their faces paled at the thought, hurried to add, “Now, I highly doubt that’s what has happened, but we need to accept that it is a very real possibility and plan accordingly.”

After a few moments, they all started breathing again and he sank back into his chair at the table.

Piper was the first to speak again.

“So, how do we go about standing in the way of a big evil dude that can transport himself around at the speed of thought?”

“Well, the Council says that the fight for Omaha was pretty intense and there was no damage done that they could see outside of the area where the battle took place. I feel fairly confident saying that he expended a good amount of energy on taking out those guardians and, as far as we can tell, didn’t recoup it before he took off. I assume he’ll be traveling by mundane means to conserve energy and press forward as quickly as possible.”

“Makes sense I guess.”

“So, what tools do we have on our side? Between the three of us, we’ve got some pretty useful toys at our disposal. I’m sure when it gets down to it, the Council will be more than willing to give us whatever they can. Assuming of course we have time to ask for it.”

Barb chose that moment to chime in with, “That’s the real issue here, isn’t it? Time? Even if we figure out a plan, are we going to have time to get it in place? Is there even time to make a difference?”

“We can’t think like that, Barb. Our granddaughter
needs
there to be time for that. Not just in hopes that we can stop him, or even slow him down. She needs that time because she needs to prepare. With any luck, we’ll have a couple of days. That should be enough time for us to figure out the best way to hold him off and give her more time to get ready.”

“On that note, have you guys noticed how strong she’s getting lately? We were sitting in class the other day and I swear she was going to use the professor for target practice. She had these crazy little spikey balls flying around her and her aura was so intense that it almost hurt to look at it. I’ve never been more thankful that the general public is oblivious to the energies around them! If anyone had seen that we could have been in even bigger trouble than we already are!”

“I’ve noticed a few major improvements over the last few days as well.” Arlene added. “It’s a huge relief that she’s curious about it and obviously pushing herself to try new things. If she had been any other person, she probably would have been terrified of herself and locked herself in her bedroom.”

“If this had happened before the Purge, before our bloodline became so scattered, the girl would have had a proper teacher and this whole business would have started when she was much younger. This just feels an awful lot like throwing her to the wolves.” Barbara continued to wring her hands in her lap as she stared intently at the map on the table. The mention of the Purge silenced all of them. Shortly after Chaos last visited, the major religions from around the world banded together and started looking for someone to point a finger at. Due to their involvement in sending Chaos back to where he came from, their Druidic ancestors became the targets. They were rounded up and, those who survived the barbaric questioning, were slaughtered. Entire clans had been erased from existence and those who had escaped the hangings, burnings, and torture had been exiled to live a nomadic existence with no belongings besides what they could carry as they fled.

The energy in the room was rapidly turning from productivity to worry. He knew from experience that if they weren’t redirected and focused, worry would quickly deteriorate into panic. And they wouldn’t get anything done if three of the four of them were in a state of panic.

“Well, we’ve got Piper and her pretty little toy. That will allow us to travel just as quickly as he can, assuming we can find him and keep tabs on him. That is definitely a step in the right direction. We may not have all the skill and power of full guardians, but we’re not at a total loss. We’ve all got our own borrowed magicks that will make all the difference if we can figure out how to best utilize them. Barb, you’ve got your shield, right? And Arlene, you’ve still got the whip, right?”

The two women both touched their weapons that they kept hidden in plain sight. The broach at Barb’s breast and the hairpin in Arlene’s tight bun each hummed quietly at their touch and quieted down as they placed their hands back in their laps. He fiddled with the ring around his own finger, feeling the familiar stones vibrate as he touched them and took some comfort in his own words.

“We’ve got a fighting chance here, ladies. We need to keep our minds focused on the task at hand and do whatever we can to help Ardra when the time comes.”

The three of the lingered on the borderline of worry and panic for a moment before Piper lit up and spun the map around on the table.

“We can travel just as fast as he can, right?”

They all nodded, not yet seeing where she was going with this.

“Lobo can get to us just as fast as I can get to you, right Bishop?”

He nodded, still not quite seeing where she was taking this idea.

“Well, if we can’t pin down the route he’ll take, we’ll have to cover them both. I can drop Barb and Arlene off here,” she tapped a spot on the map where I-25 meets I-80 before continuing “and I can drop you off here.” She pointed at the junction of I-70 and Highway 6 and glanced around to make sure they were following.

As it dawned on them, they started nodding slowly.

“If he takes this route, he’ll run into Barb, Arlene and I and I can flash down and grab you drop you off here.” She tapped a spot a few miles outside of Park City, about 45 miles from Salt Lake, “If he takes
this
route, you can send Lobo to let us know and I can drop them off here.” She pointed to the intersection of I-70 and I-15, “Or here.” Again pointing to the map at the intersection of Highway 6 and I-15. “That way all of our bases are covered and we’re keeping him away from any major populations, cutting down on the risk of anyone else getting hurt. I assume he’s been trying to keep a low profile, so he wouldn’t want to risk mass mayhem in the middle of a vastly populated area unless he had no other choice.”

She glanced around the table and shrugged before sitting back and waiting for input.

“This could work, Piper. This is a very good idea. You guys would be okay on your own until we could get back up there?”

Arlene and Barb nodded in unison, seeming to take the question as a challenge of their competency.

“Of course we would. We’re not just a couple of defenseless old ladies. You of all people know that, Will.” Arlene winked at him before asking, “Will
you
be okay on your own?”

A flash of green lit up the room and revealed a rather large wolf sitting at his side, showing just enough teeth to prove that he was dangerous.

“I think we’ll be fine.” A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

The low rumble of the motorcycle and the scream of the wind in his ears helped him to focus his mind.

Omaha had shaken him up and left him questioning his plans and that was not something he could afford to do right at that moment. As he rode on towards Denver, he thought over his past victories. They had all been close calls. Close calls were not high on his list of favorite things in the Universe.

If Denver turned out to be anything like Omaha, he wasn’t going to make it through in one piece. Or even a thousand pieces. He was going to have to stop and refill his tank.

After driving through the night, he could see the glow of a rather large city on the horizon and reached out with his antennae to find out of it was his destination or not. After prodding through a few minds on the outskirts of the city, he decided that it was a city called Aurora, a suburb of Denver. Another hour or two and he would be in striking distance.

Attacking in broad daylight wasn’t really an option, however. He would need to find a place fairly close where he could lay low until nightfall.

He pulled his antennae back and opened up the throttle, causing the bike to bolt from fast to breakneck in a matter of seconds.

He sped toward the glow on the horizon, keeping enough of his mind on the road to keep the bike between the lines and let the rest wander. It had been centuries since he had been allowed to roam free and do as he pleased and he missed it. All the mayhem and confusion he had once wrought upon this pitiful race was a painful memory to him in comparison to his current bout of servitude. Having the constant threat of being ripped to shreds by the nastiest being in all Universes, known and unknown, weighing on him was bad enough. The extra stress of being constantly pummeled by magicks  erserker  to destroy him by the very people responsible for his centuries-long absence was enough to infuriate both him and the lovely beast inside of him.

The personal rage he felt was a huge distraction that he really couldn’t afford.

Unfortunately, it also seemed to be a distraction he couldn’t avoid.

As the first bit of the Denver skyline came into view, his beast stirred with recognition. He began running through his mental checklist and testing his energy stores in preparation. A sliver of doubt ran into the wall of his resolve and crumpled feebly before he put it out of his head. He could deal with rage, but doubting himself now would inevitably lead to failure. Failure was not an option.

The stars above his head began to fade away, washed out by the light pollution from the large city. Multi-level buildings began to spring up around him as he wound his way through the city, letting the hum in his blood lead him where it would.

It struck him as odd that he hadn’t seen the now-familiar dome of energy as he approached the city. Suspicion sufficiently raised, he became all the more aware of his surroundings. He didn’t want to be caught off-guard at such a crucial juncture. He let his feelers out as far as he could without taking away his awareness of the area immediately surrounding him. Everything seemed to be normal for a city the size of this one. It was definitely not a sleepy little town like all the others he had been to.