Blood Vivicanti (9781941240113) (7 page)

Lowen stopped his army just
outside the Labyrinth Fort.

He in Theo’s body and Nell
in Wyn’s had great vision. They could see something that looked
almost identical to Red and me.

It wasn’t us, of course.
The holo-imaging tech strapped to my arm was projecting our image.
They looked pretty lifelike, I thought.

My mechanical man was
behind the holograms. I wondered if Lowen could see through the
illusion. Then I wondered if he knew that he was also looking at a
giant robot.

My boy was powered down,
lying face down with this chest on the ground. His hands and arms
laid flat near his head. His chin was tilting up. His eye sockets
and grill mouth could only just be seen.

So far Red’s plan was
working. Nevertheless I prayed that Lowen mistook my boy for just
another scrapheap in the Locomotive Deadyards.

Nell leaned close to Lowen.
“It’s a trap,” she said.

Lowen nodded. “She wants us
to attack those holograms,” he said, giving a little
chuckle.

Nell’s new Blood Vivicanti
eyes searched around the Labyrinth Fort.

“
I don’t see Mary Paige,”
she said. “I don’t see the Red Man either.”

Lowen grinned maliciously.
“Why not,” he said. He was having conversation inside his head.
“Let’s do it.”

He glared fiercely at
Nell.

“
Get the Red Man,” he
ordered her. “Kill the Blood Vivicanti.”

Thousands of Sleeper Devils
went charging in, running wildly with their fists raised and their
mouths open, screaming and shouting and grunting.

Then thousands more
followed them.

Lowen, Nell, and the
Devicanti stood still in their places like rocks amid rushing
water.

The Sleeper Devils
clambered like a flood over the rows of old railcars.

Lowen never told them that
they were hurrying toward two holograms, and they did not know this
either. They charged straight for the images and tried to seize
them, but instead they went tumbling through the illusion in a wild
confusion of bodies, all flailing about like ragdolls.

The mass of Sleeper Devils
stopped when they realize that something strange was happening.
They look at one another with confused expressions. They listened
for Lowen through his spirit-link, but he wasn’t speaking with
them. He let them flounder alone.

That was when I activated
my boy.

Steam’s smokestacks billow
out like geysers. His heart began ticking and tocking like a great
and magical clockwork heart. His fingers spread wide. His hands
pressed up his torso. His head looked up and the fire behind his
mouth and eyes burned hot and bright.

Some Sleeper Devils ran
away. Others stood stupidly still. A few crawled up him like ants.
They tried fruitlessly beating against his strong metal
plates.

He cast a long shadow over
those on the ground. He balanced himself on one fist while raising
the other above his head. And right before he slammed it down on
top of several Sleeper Devils, I heard one whimper, “Oh, thank
God.”

My mechanical man cracked
the floor with his powerful thrust. That’s my boy.

He swept his arm across the
Labyrinth Fort, knocking over several old trains and sending
several more spiraling into the distance.

Hundreds of Sleeper Devils
were flattened completely with that first onslaught. But there were
hundreds more still coming.

They climbed all over him
and tried to take him apart with their rotting hands.

Dust and rust clouded
everywhere in the tumult.

Steam balanced himself on
his waist. Then he raised both fists in the air and slammed them
down with all his power.

The ground fissured like a
fault line beneath his strength. It weakened the structure under
the Locomotive Deadyards. The ground cracked and crumbled away. A
great chasm opened. The bottom was very far down. I could only see
darkness.

Many Sleeper Devils fell
into the chasm, some looking helpless and scared, some glad that
death was finally coming. They tumbled into darkness and
disappeared.

The ground fissured all the
way up to Lowen and stopped at his feet. He, Nell, and his
Devicanti did not fall into the chasm.

But the Locomotive
Deadyards was collapsing inward like some tumbledown house of
cards.

My grip shook free from the
rafters and I fell. Red leaped after me. And he almost caught me
midair.

But I fell headfirst on a
boxcar. My neck snapped and my body flipped over and away until I
crumpled on the ground like some graceless bird.

My body healed itself and I
sat up shakily, rubbing my dizzy head.

I looked for Red, but I did
not see him.

Lowen suddenly stood before
me. He had moved faster than Theo ever did, catching me completely
off guard.

He gripped my throat and
lifted me closer to his face.

It felt good to be that
close to Theo again. The scent was still the same. But it wasn’t
him. And I was beginning to accept that he was indeed gone
forever.

Lowen then flung me across
the Labyrinth Fort.

As I flew through the air,
I caught a glimpse of Red.

He had landed and had been
immediately ganged up by about twenty Devicanti. He was beautiful
to watch as he fought them all, grabbing them and tossing them and
breaking them – reminiscent of Rudolph Nureyev the famous Russian
ballet dancer on the Muppet Show.

I stopped flying through
the air when I crashed headlong into an old passenger
railcar.

Lowen came after me again,
leaping through the air. He landed on top of me.

He grabbed me by both
shoulders. He drew my neck closer to his mouth. His Probiscus
extended from the tip of his tongue.

“
No venom,” I said to
him.

But he paused right before
he pierced me, to look into my eyes.

“
Don’t numb my pain with
your venom,” I said.

“
No pleasure?” he asked with
an evil grin. “No problem.”

Then he thrust his tongue
into my throat and drank my blood and ate my Blood
Memories.

I had wanted Theo’s tongue
inside me, but not like that.

Lowen’s eyes had been
closed as he drank my blood. But then he opened them wide with fear
and realization.

“
Oh my G—” he started to say
but choked on blood and words.

He released me and I fell
to my feet.

Lowen fell to his knees,
groping at some pain in his throat. He was choking and gasping for
air.

“
What have you done to me?”
he demanded through his pained breath.

I stepped closer to him.
“I’ve given back to you what you’ve given to others,” I said. “I
have fed you with a dose of your own emptiness.”

And I had, too. I had
filled him with all the Blood Memories that Nell had given me. I
had fed him all the memories of all the years of misery and torture
that he gave to Nell. I had fed him with his own black
medicine.

Lowen coughed out blood and
tried crawling away from me.

“
You sent Nell to me and I
drank from her,” I said to him. “Her blood changed me. Her Blood
Memories were of the greatest emptiness and pain. And they were a
twisted reflection of my life. Drinking Nell’s blood shared with me
her experience in loneliness, her strength throughout the solitude,
and the hope that someone else would share their experience and
strength in the empty misery of loneliness. Her Blood Memories
consumed me. She is my lonely sister. She is all I’ve thought
about.”

Now it was my turn to pick
up Lowen by the throat. He struggled but he could not fight against
me.

“
My most passionate memories
are yours, Lowen. You gave them to Nell, and Nell gave them to me,
and I return them to you, filtered through me, for you to swallow
and stomach.”

I flung him across the
Labyrinth Fort like a ragdoll, but not too hard – in memory of
Theo.

He rammed against a railcar
and left a large dent in the side.

Nell came to his side and
helped him stand.

“
Bring her up,” he said to
Nell in a choked voice.

Nell brought up a little
girl whose body was charred and ashy. The girl’s hair had been
burned away and she was missing an arm.

Beyond the disfigured face,
I knew that it was Nell’s old body, the girl whose neck I’d pierced
and whose blood I’d drunk.

But now Nell was no longer
inside that body anymore. Someone else was in there. And without
knowing how, I knew that the person within this burned body was
none other than Wyn.

It was Wyn’s boyish eyes
staring at me through hers. It was Wyn’s attitude that exuded from
her like smoke. He was inside Nell’s old body, the body of a
Devicanti.

The expression of surprise
and sorrow on my face made Lowen laugh. It hurt me more to see that
cruel laughter coming from Theo’s beautiful face.

Turning to Lowen, all I
could say was, “You put Wyn’s soul in Nell’s body?”

He smirked. Then he reached
toward Wyn with one hand. Through his spirit-link he caused pain to
wrack Wyn’s new body.

Wyn grabbed his scorched
head, clenched his eyes, gnashed his teeth, and twisted in
agony.

I cried out, as if I were
the one in pain.

“
Wyn is now dead to the
world,” Lowen said. “He is mine. He loves me now and will do my
bidding. I can cause him pain or pleasure. I am his
god.”

My eyes filled with
tears.

“
What do you want?” I asked
Lowen in a defeated tone.

He beamed at me
maliciously.

“
Give me the Red Man,” he
said.

I went to Red.

He was fighting even more
hordes of Devicanti. They seemed to be coming from every direction.
They were piling high on top of him, but they could not overpower
his Herculean strength.

Lowen stopped the attack
with a wave of his hand.

The Devicanti halted almost
immediately and backed away, obeying him without
hesitation.

Red kept fighting for a
moment, swinging and grabbing, running on the Kharetie equivalent
of adrenaline.

He realized that none were
fighting back. He stopped and stood ready for more, with his hands
poised. He was panting and winded, although he was not tired. He
has the stamina of several stallions.

“
Red,” I said.

He looked at me. His
expression changed from intensity to tenderness.

I ran to him and wrapped my
arms around his waist. He leaned down and held me too. We held each
other. It seemed timeless. I loved the scent of his
sweat.

Then we met
eyes.

“
Forgive me,” I
said.

He nodded. He
understood.

Lowen turned to
Wyn.

His burnt eye blinked up at
him.

“
Take out the pocket watch,”
Lowen commanded.

Wyn had no choice. He
reached his burnt hand inside his burnt pocket. And he took out a
slightly tarnished, golden pocket watch.

“
Open it,” Lowen
ordered.

Wyn looked at me pityingly.
“I’m sorry,” he said in Nell’s small voice.

From out of the pocket
watch shone a bright, marvelous light.

Wyn set it on the ground
and backed away.

In the center of the light
appeared the floating form of Ms. Crystobal. The light was
imprisoning her, Wyn’s old housekeeper, the portal
opener.

Yet though she could not
get free from her luminous prison, she looked as merry as Julia
Child.

Lowen staggered closer to
me, still greatly weakened by the Blood Memories I’d shared with
him.

“
Now it’s time for you to
go,” he said through pained breaths.

Wyn’s blackened eyes
widened knowingly with fear.

But I tried to stay calm.
“Go where?” I asked.

“
I don’t know,” Lowen said,
“and I don’t care. It’s time for your soul to leave your body. It’s
time to make room for another slave.”