Mathieu (32 page)

“Bravo.” Gaap’s voice was punctuated by a slow clapping. She glanced back and saw it standing over her husband, applauding her.

“
You have all the right instincts, don’t you? Doesn’t it feel wonderful, causing pain?”

Her breath caught in her throat as it raised its foot to stomp on her husband’s arm. She turned back and saw that a red welted handprint had raised on Mathieu’s face. There was the sound of impact and a muffled squeal behind her as Gaap’s voice continued. “Of course, he can’t feel pain any more. But I do appreciate the intention.”

Then the voice was suddenly behind her ear. “But enough of this. Really, did you honestly think you could undo what I’ve done?” An arm wrapped around her waist, lifted her up and away. She screamed wordlessly in rage, struggled with arms and legs flailing as the creature chuckled in her ear.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” She screamed the words—not at Gaap, but at Mathieu—as she was dragged backwards. “YOU DID IT AGAIN!”

Gaap threw her down on her back and the breath left her lungs in a hard swoosh. The creature loomed above her and she struck out with both feet, kicking it hard in the stomach. It reeled back from the force of her kick and she started screaming again. “YOU KEEP LEAVING ME BEHIND!” Her breath caught in her throat as she continued softly, “You left and you never came back. You promised and you never came. You left me there to die of a broken heart.”

Gaap came back and landed on top of her, “Touching. Useless, but touching.” The limp dead mouth dangled onto her cheek as the other scales began to slowly open and let the other gaping maws out.

Behind them, Mathieu’s eyes moved and blinked.

Jenn struggled, punching and pushing against the thing that was trying to hold her down. She screamed again as her hands were caught and pushed down over her head. “AND YOU KNOW WHAT? THAT DAMNED PONY YOU HATED SO MUCH? THAT WAS THE ONLY THING LEFT THAT LOVED ME AFTER YOU WENT AWAY AND NEVER CAME BACK! YOU FUCKING FAILURE!”
She
felt something sharp and wet run across her cheekbone and started sobbing. “Caramèl was all I had left to love me when you went away.”

“Stupid beast.” The voice was low, ragged and tired. So very tired. But Mathieu swayed on his feet behind Gaap. Her handprint was still bright and red on his cheek and she felt a moment of shame for hurting him.

Gaap stiffened on top of her but Mathieu was faster. He grabbed the Demon by the hair and hauled it backwards and off of her and onto the floor.

It sinuously jumped to its feet and faced its Familiar. “Obviously, you need to be reminded who is master here.”

Jenn, now forgotten, rolled onto her knees and crawled to her husband. Marcus’s eye was nearly swollen shut, his breathing was rough but he was conscious and could meet her eyes. She kissed his face gently and then looked back to the confrontation unfolding before them.

Mathieu had moved to stand between them and Gaap, but he seemed unsteady on his feet. “Leave them alone. Let them go.”

“You’re not in any position to tell me what to do.” Gaap strode forward and hit Mathieu hard across the face.

Mathieu fell to his knees, gasping in pain. “Let them go,” he repeated.

Gaap kicked out, catching Mathieu in the head. The Familiar fell backwards, blood freely flowing from a gash in his forehead. “Stop being a willful idiot and get back inside. You know they don’t want filth like you in their world, you little whore.”

“Fuck you,” Mathieu answered from the floor.

“Excellent idea,” Gaap answered. “That’s what sent you inside last time, after all.” It dropped to perch on Mathieu’s chest, the mouths already slavering and straining towards the Familiar’s face. “You’ve forgotten that you’re bound to me.”

Mathieu’s voice was no longer weak or tired when he spoke this time. “And you’ve forgotten that you are bound to me as well.” He
reached
up, grabbed Gaap’s hands and forced then to the iron chain around his neck. “You are bound to me,” he repeated.

Gaap struggled to free its hands but Mathieu held them to the chain that was now glowing white hot around his neck. The Familiar said calmly, “You want power? I’ll give you power. All the power I have and hold,
Mestre.
”

A glow spread from the Demon’s hands up to its arms and shoulders, and then through its chest and body. Gaap struggled to free itself from Mathieu’s grasp to no avail. Mathieu’s face was still and blank as the chain around his neck grew even brighter.

Light began to bleed out from under each tightly held scale, and a beam of light shone out from the hole in the Demon’s cheek and still Mathieu held the hands to the chain that burned around his neck.

A high keening came from the creature’s lips as the light escaping its scales grew brighter and brighter. Mathieu tightened his grip and curled his lip as he spoke. “Is that screaming? So very tiring.”

Gaap’s tightly held scales exploded forward, every mouth all over its body suddenly emerging and writhing in agony, harsh, bright white light engulfing them one by one as they simply ceased to be.

Mathieu still kept hold of the hands, his expression grim. The light grew brighter and Gaap was completely engulfed.

Jenn leaned down to cover both her eyes and Marcus’ as the light grew even brighter. Even she could feel the power in the room rising, the energy making her hair stand on end. Marcus, now able to move, reached his good arm up and pulled her head to his chest, rolling slightly away to shield her from the other pair on the floor

Suddenly the keening stopped and the light dimmed. She glanced up and saw Mathieu lying on the floor. Gaap was gone, but the chain around the Familiar’s neck still glowed. Mathieu’s face was still and blank, as if in deepest concentration. She made as if to move forward but Marcus held her back. “The chain is still there. It’s still alive,” he rasped.

She
looked around the room cautiously. The two circles were still up, the others still pinned between them. “I don’t see anything.”

“I can feel it,” Marcus answered. “It’s still here, waiting.” He paused and then continued, “And I can feel all the power in here building up. It’s going to take down the house--and us with it.”

“Close your eyes,” Mathieu barked to the room in general, his eyes still fixed on some middle place between floor and ceiling.

Marcus grabbed Jenn’s head with his good hand again, pushing her down onto his chest

Hot air suddenly gusted over their bodies in increasingly intense waves. Jenn whimpered in pain, a small sound that echoed in her ears. Marcus’ grip tightened around her and she tried to burrow into his chest to get away from the heat.

Just as quickly as the heat had come, it was gone, replaced with a feeling of cool stillness. Jenn turned her head and cracked open an eyelid.

Mathieu had somehow managed to regain his feet and was standing in the middle of the room. He held tight to the chain around his neck and scowled at a cloud of light that hovered in front of him.

As she watched, the light began to slowly coalesce into a vaguely humanoid shape, taking on Gaap’s features.

Narrowing his eyes, Mathieu grimly smiled and then tensed up, every muscle in his body quivering with the strain. Gaap’s figure solidified, grew brighter and then blew apart with the hissing of a thousand fireworks.

There was so much power in the room that it was visible even to Jenn’s eyes. She watched it cascade and flow through the room, barely restrained by the two circles. She could see it lick across Mathieu’s hands as his grip ground the rusty iron links around his neck into powder. “Never again. Never.” His words were barely a whisper but she heard them clearly.

C
hapter Forty - Five

The power still swirled over and through the room, looking for an escape. The pressure built, pushing against the inner circle, the ceiling and the floor. There was a grinding noise as the ceiling beams were shifted upwards and plaster dust began to sift down from above. Dwayne groaned as the inner circle contracted against the pressure, pushing the curtain of light into his chest.

Marcus coughed and then spoke, his voice rough with pain, “Take the circle down. You need to let it out or it’ll take everything down.”

“If I let it go, something else will take it and use it for something foul.” Mathieu answered as he surveyed the collapsing circles. “Don’t think you didn’t light up the entire area like a forest fire on a mountainside. There will be something evil waiting out there soon enough.”

“You can’t keep it all in here.” Jenn answered, as she helped Marcus sit up.

“No,” Mathieu agreed. “I can’t.” He turned to Jenn, his eyes luminous in the strange light. “I never meant to fail you. You were always first in my heart and in my soul, even when that thing had me. I would have come to you a thousand times over on my hands and knees…” He shook his head as words failed him.

“You couldn’t. I understand. You were bound.” Jenn completed his thought, the way she remembered doing so a thousand times before hundreds of years ago.

“I was bound,” he echoed. “It seems that not even love is not enough to defeat evil. And now neither of us are what we were, but I will not fail you again,” he said before turning back to the power that
was
even now making the room pulse with an alien heartbeat. With a gesture, he threw himself open and the power leapt and poured into him.

He screamed in agony, staggered under the torrent and then choked into silence as the flow went on and on. Every nerve was aflame, every hair stood on end as he swayed and then fell to his knees with a whimper.

The circles collapsed one after the other, the power flaring and then flowing into Mathieu’s still shuddering body. The others in the circle staggered and dropped to the floor one by one as they were freed from the magical constriction.

Susan sobbed as she gasped for breath and crawled to Eddie, holding him in her arms as he coughed and grasped her back tightly.

Dwayne lurched forward and regained his feet as he gingerly rubbed his chest where the circle had singed the flannel. “Damn. That was my favorite shirt too.” He paused to help Carol to her feet before turning back to the center of the room.

Mathieu knelt in the center of the room, arms wrapped around his chest. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face as he stared at the floor. His breathing was strained and he was trembling slightly.

Approaching slowly, Dwayne made as much noise as he could with each step before pausing a few feet away and speaking, “Little bro’? You okay?”

A slight smile traced Mathieu’s lips and then faded. “No, Dwayne. I’m not okay. Don’t come any closer. I don’t know how much longer I can hold it all in.”

Dwayne leaned down to catch Mathieu’s eye. “What are you talking about? You aren’t making any sense here.”

Mathieu’s answering smile was more of a grimace. “The darkness. I’m not strong enough to hold all of Gadreel’s plus all of Gaap’s. It’s too much power.”

Dwayne took an automatic step forward. “What the hell are you talking about, boy?”

“
Don’t.” Mathieu gasped the word and gritted his teeth as if he were holding something back. It was then that Dwayne’s attention was drawn to the earthen floor.

“Shit. The fuck?” The floor roiled and moved as he looked at it. A dark seething mass ebbed and flowed around Mathieu’s knees. It was limited to a small circle but then tendril leaped forward towards Dwayne’s feet. Dwayne jumped back and away from it. “What the fuck is that shit?”

“I told you: the darkness. I can’t hold it back forever.” Mathieu closed his eyes and the tendril retreated back into the main mass. “You need to get out.” He opened his eyes and looked up at Dwayne. “All of you. Get out to the outer circle in the woods. You know what to do.”

“Do not tell me we went through all that shit just to come back to the same fucking place we were before.” Dwayne shook his head while he watched the darkness around Mathieu’s knees start to slowly spread outward.

Mathieu shuddered as it moved. “There isn’t always a happy ending, Dwayne. You know that better than anyone.” He closed his eyes and the mass moved back a fraction of an inch, but not as far as it had been before.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Dwayne repeated the obscenities as he backed up. “Little bro’, I don’t want to leave you like this.”

Mathieu opened his eyes again and smiled sweetly this time. “Do this for me, Dwayne. I’m tired of fighting and I’m tired of lingering. I should have died long ago. It will be a mercy.” Mathieu jerked his head towards Marcus and Jenn, who were still on the floor nearby. “Get them out of here. Get everyone out of here. That’s all I can ask.”

Dwayne paused a moment and Mathieu said quietly, “Dwayne, it won’t hurt. It’ll just be an end to it all. I won’t feel a thing.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. It’ll be like going to sleep.” Mathieu cocked his head, “I haven’t slept in centuries. I’m so tired, Dwayne.”

Nodding
numbly, Dwayne opened his arms as if he was going to hug Mathieu in a manly fashion but then stopped and shrugged.

Mathieu nodded. “Be well. Live long. Father many children and name a son after me so that I may live on.” He closed his eyes and concentrated on controlling the seething mass inside.

Dwayne looked at the still figure and then yelled at the others. “Get out. Get out now. I see bad shit coming if we don’t get out of here now.” He looked at Amanda’s limp form in the middle of the circle. “Eddie, Susan. You need to get what’s left of her out. Carol, you need to go get her daddy out of here. Get out to the wards in the woods.” He moved over to help haul Marcus to his feet as the others shakily got to their feet and followed his directions.

Marcus groaned in pain but managed to get up under his own power. He waved Dwayne away with a wince, hunched over like an old man.

“We have to go. Now.” Dwayne gestured at Mathieu. The dark circle had grown wider when Dwayne wasn’t looking. That was enough to encourage him to ignore Marcus’ sound of protest, wriggle a shoulder under the injured man’s arm and start hauling ass for the door.

“What is it?” Jenn asked. She was supporting Marcus on the other side.