Chapter 21
The annoying sound of a siren drowned out the mayhem and cries as the beast stormed around, obliterating everything that stood in its path. The ripped plastic and bodies lay scattered like rags over the sand-covered ground. Furniture and equipment flew across the large room to land in pieces on the ground, and people who scrambled toward the only door at the end of the room ended up beside the furniture, like broken dolls. They didn’t seem alive to Tina, but a mere crash against the wall would kill neither Deadeaters nor Aradmas, which might not be the case with her. She obediently lay on the ground, clutching the gun in her hand, pretending to be dead, closing her eyes every time the monster moved in her direction, afraid that she might end up trampled.
What are we going to do? she asked Muriel, who lay silent and motionless a short distance away.
Wait until it calms down and then transport us home.
But we don’t have time for that; somebody might appear any moment now. Shadows more likely, since that would be first thing I would dispatch if I were Petsha. And she still feared Shadows, even though she wore Gillian’s suit and Haniel’s mask around her neck. Couldn’t you do it now?
No, I have to be in contact with the ‘passengers’ and concentrate, and I can’t do that with him raging about.
You could change into your beast form, too and we could jump on his back and hold tight while you transport us out of here.
He would probably become even wilder and even if he didn’t, how can I focus when I’m holding on for dear life?
He was exaggerating, talking like he wasn’t one of the Bloodeaters, like he was as fragile as a human. She glanced in his direction, ready to tell him that, when something prickled the back of her neck. She gazed around, and then noticed them: the black wisps coming through the cracks in the ceiling. Shadows! From behind her shirt she pulled out the necklace, put the pendant over her mouth and a mask spread over lower part of her face. From the corner of her eye she could see Muriel doing the same.
The first Shadow forced its way in. It went straight for Damon. The beast grabbed its core and crushed it in his palm.
A shriek filled the room as the whips shrunk and withered and the broken pieces of core fell on the ground.
I didn’t know that you could kill a Shadow barehanded.
Neither did I, Muriel said.
Tina scrambled to the nearby wall. She wiped her clammy hands against her jacket, then hugged herself while Damon extinguished more Shadows, which now poured through the multiplying cracks like water through a broken dam. She expected Muriel to follow, but Damon came between them, cutting off Muriel’s access to her.
The ground shook again. New cracks appeared in the walls and in the ceiling, and more rubble fell down.
If she’d only had her sword, then she would have been out there, doing something instead of waiting here, watching as Muriel changed into a beast and clawed his way through the black mass, his talons grabbing cores and breaking them as Damon had.
The ground shook again, and then again. Parts of the ceiling joined the rain of debris.
“Muriel!” She jumped up toward Muriel, her heart hammering in her ears, as a large piece of concrete separated from the ceiling above him.
But it wasn’t just that one piece, she saw, the whole ceiling was about to fall.
A Shadow crossed her path, she sidestepped it; then another, another evasive step. She had almost reached Muriel, but to do what? To push him out of one danger into another.
Something took hold of her arm, sharp pins dug into her shoulder
Damon! Fear grabbed her by the neck and squeezed. It was the beast, the monster, twice the size of Muriel and it was going to kill her, munch on her like a chicken leg.
The muzzle neared but where she expected pain, the thrust of fangs in her skin, she got a sniff, the caress of a damp snout against her cheek. What?
A big hand covered her head as the beast cradled her body like a baby and enveloped itself around her like a protective shell.
“Damon?”
The ceiling fell; she felt when it hit the body above her, and then saw it as it thundered in chunks to the ground, shaking the walls.
They slumped, the furry body still protecting her, but at the same time the weight of its arms pressed her down.
The embrace loosened and she quickly tried to scramble out of it.
The cloud of dust lingered over the ground like a thick fog and without the mask, she suspected, it would be hard to breathe.
Her eyes slid over the dark mass at her feet.
The beast lay curled on its side, with the ragged wings folded tight against its back. Gaping wounds marked its back and side, and crimson wet its fur and streamed down.
It had saved her. No, he had saved her. She slumped down on her knees before him. She touched the fur, her fingers searching for the pulse on the thick neck. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t. It was only a ceiling, there was no way just that would be able to kill him. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. Damon was still in there, he hadn’t vanished, because if he had, the beast wouldn’t have protected her as it had.
At a rattle in his chest, a sigh of relief left her throat. They were going to be all right. They were going to be just fine. “Just hang in there.” She stroked the back of his head. “At least now you are still and Muriel can transport us home.”
“Tina!”
“Here.” She tore herself away and stood up.
A black blur passed by her, and then another. But they didn’t frighten her as much as she thought they would.
“Get down, there are still Shadows around.”
She squatted down and pulled the gun from under her jacket. She didn’t believe it would be of any use, not against Shadows and not when she had never shot one, but it was better than nothing. “You have to get over here.”
“Nobody is going anywhere,” the voice from above ordered.
The blonde man floated above them, a turquoise blue mantle fluttered behind him, and the dark, endless mass of Shadows served as his frame and background.
“Petsha,” Muriel, who had changed back into his human form, greeted him.
Tina, holding Damon’s paw, stared at Petsha. He looked so... harmless among the Shadows, not like that time when he had fed on Damon.
Petsha glared at them, his upper lip lifted in distaste. “You trouble me and disturb my peace. For what?”
There was something off with him, but Tina just couldn’t put her finger on what it was, only that it made her neck prickle and gave her the creeps. She glanced at Muriel, who scrutinised Petsha as someone would a specimen. He must have noticed it too.
They were so close, just one moment more and they would have been free. She tensed her jaw. And she was not ready to die, not yet, nor was she willing to serve as Petsha’s snack.
“For him?” Petsha pointed at Damon. “He’s useless. But you can’t have him,” he hissed before he ordered, “Get them!”
At Petsha’s command the Shadows shot downward.
The black blanket covered them, the wisps reached out for her, for Damon, for Muriel.
She pressed herself against Damon that lay beside her and covered his muzzle with the edge of her sleeve. That would stop the Shadows from feeding on him, but she couldn’t stop them from harming him as they wrapped their threads around him, scorching his fur and skin.
She looked past him at Muriel, who slashed through them like they were paper.
The beast growled and his eyes opened, revealing two glowing red rubies that stared directly at her. He tried to move, to pick himself up, but he only slumped back down, his limbs useless by his side.
She buried her fingers in the ebony softness that covered his temples. If she could only do something for him, save him like she had promised she would.
The blankness around them withdrew, then parted, cleared a path for Petsha, who stepped toward them.
Kill me, please, a voice that sounded like Damon’s said inside her mind.
“Damon?” she whispered.
Petsha strolled closer. “Damaging my property, because that’s all you are capable of doing.” He smoothed back the blonde curl that fell on his brow. “Did you really think that you could save him?”
Kill me, please. I can’t go through all that again.
Please don’t give up. She pressed her cheek against his muzzle. They would find a way. They had to.
There’s no salvation for me, not in this beast’s broken body, not when it might be permanent.
I can’t give up on you.
But you will have to, Damon said. Pick up that gun.
She picked up the gun, which somewhere in the middle of everything had slipped out of her hand and she hadn’t even noticed, because it was useless to her. She frowned at her hand, then at the beast. You are doing this?
“You can’t harm me with that toy. Put it down,” Petsha said.
Point it at my forehead, just above the nose.
No! but her body obeyed him anyway.
Pull the trigger.
She cried then, fought against it, but her fingers did as he asked.
A soft click and then a bang.
“No!” Her heart stopped.
And so did everything else around her.
The gun fell from her fingers, her eyes on the silver and copper on the tip of the bullet that already touched the beast’s forehead.
She touched it, almost burning her finger on the hot shell.
“Damn you. Damn you.” She couldn’t help but bang her fists against his chest. How could he do that to her? She was going to give him hell -- she glanced over her shoulder at Petsha -- as soon as they got out of here.
The world around her started to move again, slowly.
She stood up, ready to drag the heavy beast as far as she could, when a flicker of yellow light caught her attention.
She stared at Petsha, who looked like he was in the middle of a lecture, confident and full of himself, but there was something...
There it was again. She focused on her heart, accelerated it as she unconsciously stepped closer.
A yellow transparent image, visible only for a second, but it was enough to make Tina stumble backwards, almost falling as her heel kicked against a piece of ceiling.
Angelica!
No, it couldn’t be. Tina’s heartbeat sped up even more, she staggered over to Damon, pushed, pulled and tugged on his limbs to move him as far away from that... that... monster, feeling something cold and sharp twisting her gut. But Damon in his beast form was too heavy for her, not that that stopped her from trying. Angelica was dead, gone, Trinity had sacrificed her soul to make sure of that. How could she be here again? How could she be here, inside of Petsha?
Time resumed its normal pace, and the Shadows surged forward.
Muriel! Muriel! Help! she called out before she slowed down time again. He probably couldn’t see them over the heaps of Shadows and if he didn’t see them, then he wouldn’t be able to transport beside them. Still she shoved, pushed at the heavy mass of fur, trying to ignore the Shadows that climbed over her, that tried to drown her in their burning fog. They made thin, scorched lines on her hands and face. She wouldn’t give up, she wouldn’t give up, she repeated to herself like a mantra while her body trembled and dread dampened her hairline.
But Muriel did somehow manage to appear before them, tall and proud, the muscles rippling under his fur. A wonderful sight, dangerous and powerful. And he wasn’t alone. There was Uriel by his side, and Haniel, and... Another Muriel in beast form, and two Uriels beside him...
The Shadows fell away from her and Damon.
Time accelerated.
Macele, they had used Macele. Tina smiled, feeling giddy all of a sudden. Her legs wobbled like jelly and she dropped down on her knees.
She wrapped her hands around Damon’s neck, buried her face in Damon’s fur and the tears poured down her cheeks. For a moment there she had thought they were goners, but they were going to be all right. This time they were really going to be all right.
The Dumes pushed the Shadows backwards, slashing through their cores with their swords, obliterating them. Screeches filled the space and shells of the core sprinkled the debris on the ground.
It’s Angelica. Petsha is Angelica, she told the Muriels, hoping that the other Dumes could hear her, too.
One of the Uriels forced his way past the Shadows, almost reaching Petsha.
What is he trying to do?
To get Petsha, what else? Muriel said.
Shadows encircled Uriel and curtained Tina’s view of him.
The Dumes leaped toward them, their swords cut into Shadows and more broken cores littered the ground.
A blackness in the shape of a blossom rose, with Petsha standing in the middle of it.
Beams of electricity shot up, but the blossom closed up and surged upwards, disappearing from Tina’s view.
The Dumes tried to follow, but the rest of the Shadows rose up and formed a protective shield where the ceiling used to be.
And there on the ground, Tina could see a body. It was Uriel.
It was just a copy, it had to be. Tina bit her lip, forcing herself to stay next to Damon, when all she wanted to do was to run to where Uriel’s body lay. Uriel, who in the next moment pushed himself up and joined the rest of the Dumes.
Aren’t we going home? She tightened her hold on Damon. Before something happened to them.
A hand touched her shoulder and she turned her head to see Muriel in his human form beside her.
“Don’t worry. They are just clones,” he said like he knew what was going on in her mind. “Even if you lose some of us, that wouldn’t affect them any more than a shallow wound would.”
So he was a clone, too. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
She felt like she could breathe again. “Can we go home now, please?”
“Of course.” Muriel wiped her cheeks with his knuckles.
She glanced up where she could see that despite the heavy rain of shattered Shadows’ cores the Dumes couldn’t penetrate the black ceiling. “I just want to go home.”
“Yes, they are waiting for you.” Muriel hugged them both and in the next moment they found themselves in front of the truck.
Muriel and Haniel rushed to her, they examined her limbs, the exposed skin of her face.
“I’m fine. I’m fine.” Tina removed the mask from her face, still holding onto Damon. “But he’s not.”
The rest of the Dumes appeared not far behind her and their copies disappeared.
“You have to let him go,” Irene said as hands pried her stiff fingers away from the beast, but as soon as they put Damon on a stretcher, Tina was by his side again.
She held onto Damon’s large hand, walking beside him as they carried him inside the truck. To try to put him in a Sarniikzi, probably, though she doubted that his big body would fit. But it didn’t matter; nothing mattered, not even that Angelica was out there, because they were safe and they had Damon.
#
Tina stood before the large Sarniikzi, which five people could have easily squeezed into, and looked down at the heap of flesh and fur that lay curled on its side, its limbs chained. He mostly slept, but here and there he woke up as if from nightmares, thrashing and turning inside the large, steel crate. His roars and howls and cries always made Tina run to him. It was as if Damon called for her, begged for her presence, and the mark of Beloved didn’t allow her to stay away. Every time she was close to him, the beast would become silent, allowing Damon’s mind to prevail and regain control over the beast.
It was the mark, Tristian had told her. Damon was tied to her by it and luckily for Damon the bond they shared was stronger than the animal inside him.
Tina stepped away, giving space to Tristian. It was time for his feeding.
She stood there while Tristian lifted his big head and gently put a rubber tube that was attached to the bag of blood between the beast’s fangs. They didn’t dare feed him directly.
She kneeled by the crate and leaned her elbows on its edge. Her fingers started to play with the fur on Damon’s arm. He was still scary looking, scary enough to have made Macele pack her bags and leave the small house in which they resided, saying that she would return as soon as Damon became normal again. That, Tristian said, wouldn’t happen for quite some time, not until Damon’s body regained its previous strength and he didn’t need the beast’s powers anymore.
But Tina didn’t mind it that much. Damon was still Damon, despite his current weird appearance and the fact that here and there he became slightly feral -- not in her presence though.
She slid her fingers through the hair on his arm. It was so soft. A small smile curved her lips. She should be with the Dumes and the Numuns, trying to learn if they had found out something new that would confirm her claim about Angelica, but being here was more important at the moment. And they were on a bit of a vacation, weren’t they? They deserved a little break from everything. She deserved it.
Hey. Damon’s voice sounded so tired inside her head.
She looked at the red eyes that stared at her. “Hey. How are you doing?”
You tell me.
She gave him an encouraging smile. “You are doing fine, and you will soon be even better.”
You promise?
“Yes, I promise.” She wrapped her fingers around the large hand. “And by now you know that I always keep my promises.”
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