THE QUESTERS, PART XXI

[Work became crazy even before the Coronavirus pandemic hit. And then it got worse. Sorry for the long delay in updating.]

So... Lockheed was now monstrously huge - bigger than the largest High Plains carnosaur. Meanwhile, Jonah had become the darkest and most accursed nightmare of the Spider-Folk. If I survived to see my father again, I imagine he would have some sharp words for me. They would surely involve my failure to understand just what secrets my pack was concealing.

Oh, and the sun had gone dark despite the fact it was morning. The effect was much like a full eclipse - something I'd only seen once before. The disk of the sun was rimmed with a thin circle of light, which meant that all my pack could at least dimly see. However, the relative lack of light was a tremendous advantage for the vampires, and within that shield of darkness I could sense them and their Hand servants scrambling through a network of tunnels and caves. Many were surfacing while some of the more conservative sorts kept underground as they moved towards us. Unless we could somehow evade or break up the coming attack, we were going to be hit from multiple sides and angles.

My father has a saying that he tells me is quite ancient. It goes something like this: "No plan survives contact with the enemy."

Once again, I'm forced to bow to my father's wisdom. Or, as mother Anna says, "That jackass knows things."

"Any other surprises!?" I snarled in the general direction of everyone as I sprinted along with Alex and Smit toward a pack of fast-approaching Hand. Faye was already there, beating a spearman to death with the broken body of a mage. Really, it's well understood that mages shouldn't get too close to melee engagements, but sometimes a fight moves too quickly and mages can find themselves overrun.

Jonah, trailing long and black streamers of his curse, vaulted from an upthrust of rock and landed behind Faye. Actually, he landed on top of a Hand ninja who was trying to sneak up on Faye. Then he began tearing the screaming ninja to pieces with his huge array of shark-like teeth.

*Two vampires and eight Hand in a tunnel about ten yards to the north of my position,* Beck mind-spoke to all of us. *They're trying to work around and come up in our rear.*

*Got it,* Rose responded. Then the whirlwind of broken rock that was gently spinning around her suddenly whipped behind us. It seemed to almost snuffle and sniff at the ground - like a burrowing dog - and then finally found a gap. With a sawmill-like howl of grinding rock and dust, the spiral of razor-rock condensed, accelerated, and then flowed inside the opening. The ground trembled as a hollow and rumbling sound came from below. Rose smiled grimly as a thick mud composed of rock-dust and dark blood began seeping up out of the ground.

After that, the world seemed to turn red and orange as Lockheed decided to burn something unspecified that had made the mistake of getting in front of us. Whatever it was that had caught Lockheed's eye, it was deeply unlucky.

Howling ancient war-cries to the Old One, Alex and Smit piled into the band of ninjas that Faye and Jonah were already fighting.

*Does anyone know how to turn the sun back on!?* Faye called from inside our heads.

Nobody replied. The magically-imposed eclipse was allowing the vampires to roam freely. So far, we were handling them and their Hand minions, but soon the enemy would mass.

We needed to keep moving. And we had to strike at Dracula himself before his forces could overwhelm us.

We were in trouble. We needed help.

I looked around. Then the ghost of a young man - he appeared out of nowhere - smiled with dead serenity as he pointed forward and down - towards the central mass of the island.

I nodded my thanks to the spirit. He bowed formally and then faded away.

A small hand clutched mine. Looking down, I saw it was another ghost. She was a small brown girl clad in spectral rags. A third of her chest was splayed open and her heart was gone, but for some reason the hand that was tucked into mine felt warm. And she smiled at me through the tears that her face had worn ever since her death.

The ghost urgently tugged at me, indicating that I should follow her. She was trying to take us into a loose cluster of boulders that marked the beginning of a field of broken ground.

I made a leap of faith. "This way!" I yelled to the others.

I wondered if the vampires understood how their millennium-long reign of murder and terror had created so many eternal and relentless enemies.

Ed returned in his usual burst of white and blue - bringing reinforcements with him. They were a dozen lithe and lightly armored figures who where spaced around him. They were carrying swords.

Among those new warriors I could sense the blaze of Illyana's magic. That same aura surrounded us as well. Illyana was protecting all of us from the mesmeric power of the vampires. Without that, our mission would have quickly failed.

The new combatants almost instantly judged the situation and sprang into action. Splitting into pairs, they leaped and bounded over the rocky ground as they targeted foes. The vampires and the Hand - just beginning to recover from the shock of our initial attack - were once again thrown into confusion. The new arrivals wielded their blades with deadly precision. Caught off guard, the isle's defenders suffered serious losses. But even more important, my pack was able to move freely.

Jonah's great uncle had indeed come through for us. Until then, I'd never seen the Special Forces of the Spider Legions in action. And that was a sight that even the proudest and most deadly Blood warrior would have to respect.

In between Jonah's grand-uncle loaning us his best warriors, and Jonah's aunt 'gifting' Jonah with the Dark Spider itself, I wondered at the political repercussions that would eventually arise among the Spider-Folk.

Well... that would only be something to worry about if we survived. And, honestly, it wasn't my problem.

The tiny girl-ghost was still with me. We were all next to the sprawl of boulders that she seemed to think was so important. A giant shadow rippled over us as Lockheed swooped in a great circle, laying down a blazing arc of fire in our rear. At the same time, Jonah reached into an almost invisible opening between two of the huge rocks and dragged out a vampire. The expression on its face was somewhere between surprised and horrified.

"Why, hello..." Smit growled eagerly as he and Alex dove in to help Jonah. Smit was all but full Creed by then. His eyes had gone from his normal light brown, through the yellow I'd seen a few times before, and were now all the way to full orange. His canine teeth were so long that he had to keep his jaw hanging slightly open, otherwise he would cut his mouth open.

Alex had a cold and fixed smile on his face. If you didn't look into the hell of his eyes, you might have thought that he was pleasantly amused by something.

Filled with feral fury, Jonah, Alex, and Smit - my three most savage hunters - tore into the struggling vampire. Until then, I'd never heard a vampire scream for mercy.

As the vampire howled its way to whatever awaited it in the beyond, the girl-ghost standing next to me waved goodbye to him. I heard her let out a faint and otherworldly peal of little girl's laughter. Apparently she and the vampire had known one another.

Then the girl-ghost untangled her hand from mine, stepped away, and vanished into an aura of white light. Her reason for staying in this world was done.

Wherever she was going, I hoped she would find her family.

"Farewell," I whispered. Rose and Faye quickly glanced at me but said nothing. They had long ago become used to my habit of talking to things they couldn't see.

*That opening widens into a series of excavated chambers,* Beck reported to me. *There are two more vampires and maybe twenty Hand inside. That complex opens into something larger. The vampires and the Hand feel they have to defend it all costs.*

*Thank you, Beck,* I communicated back to her. With the Thor and the Old One as my witnesses, I swore right then and there that I would never again go into a major fight without a combat psychic by my side. With Beck's help, decisions that should have been all but impossible were now simple.

*Ready?* I called to the rest of my pack via Beck's mind-link. Everyone responded eagerly. From overhead, even Lockheed let out a bellowing growl that seemed to signal his assent.

With Lockheed laying down fire all around us, and the Spider legionnaires battling nearby concentrations of the enemy, I led my pack into an opening that descended into the island's tunnel complex. We assembled in a chamber that was a good five yards in diameter. It was startlingly smooth.

The cavern rocked as both rock and dust cascaded down onto us. There was a roar and a pounding racket coming from above. Then red light and a wash of painful heat flared through the opening that had led us into the chamber. Lockheed was still above, expressing his displeasure to our enemies and making sure we wouldn't be followed.

*Lockheed plans to withdraw slowly,* Beck told me. *He'll keep to broken ground and try to fool the enemy into thinking that we're still with the Spider-warriors. He says to call when we need his help and he'll burrow down to meet us.*

I took a moment to marvel at how Beck seemed to be able to exchange meaningful communication with Lockheed. That was certainly handy.

*Ask the big guy about his religious beliefs,* Alex asked Beck thoughtfully. *Maybe, when this over, we can recruit him into the temple guard. He comes across as a Lady of Fire sort of individual...*

Smit actually barked out a laugh.

Around us, I could hear the constant whisper of ghosts. They were eagerly guiding me. Without knowing it, Dracula and his vampires had gifted us with expert local guides.

Faye and Rose were obviously uncomfortable in the darkness. Neither of them had the gifted senses that the rest of us enjoyed. Then Rose did a trick I've only seen her do a few times before. Pulling a pair of thumb-sized quartz crystals out of a belt-pouch, she did something to them with her power. They began emitting a yellow-white light. Rose handed one of the crystals to Faye, and Faye accepted it with a sigh of relief.

"I'llll go fiiiirst," Jonah whispered to me. I nodded in agreement, but then with a flick of my eyes told Alex and Smit to back him up.

Then, with Jonah, Alex, and Smit in the lead, Faye and Rose guarding the rear, and Beck in the center with me, we began advancing.

After several hundred yards, we encountered a cold mist that hung just above the cavern floor. It didn't fool me for a moment.

Alex and Smit growled out a chuckle, but otherwise did nothing to reveal what they knew. Jonah just snorted in disgust. It reminded me of a mountain lion's impatient grumble.

*Keep going,* I told the others via Beck's mind-link. *We're about to be attacked by at least two vampires.*

*Three vampires, most honored Lady,* Beck sent to me politely. I suppose she didn't want to seem too presumptuous at correcting me.

I shifted until I was right next to Beck and put an arm around her midsection. Then I hooked a thumb through her belt and pulled her close. I wanted to know Beck's precise location. If the vampires had any idea how valuable she was, they might target her first.

The vampires - three vampires actually - reformed out of the cold, knee-high, mist and struck at our flank.

Rose made a negligent gesture and sent a fast-moving wave of sharp stones and other debris into the vampires, breaking up their charge. I half-pivoted so that my body was between Beck and our attackers. Faye snatched up a head-sized stone and pitched it into the vampire closest to her. It staggered back with multiple broken bones. Smit, reacting to the threat against Beck, uncontrollably attacked the vampire nearest to Beck and I. I didn't even try to give him orders.

As Faye, Rose, and I kept our eyes on our other three sides, Jonah and Alex advanced in a short hook pattern and hit the vampire pack from the flank. Quickly tearing the first vampire to pieces, they then moved down the line, sequentially attacking the remaining vampires. Each vampire was already engaged when overwhelming force was applied to them one-by-one.

The enemy didn't last long.

By the time that fight was done, most of us were covered with the oddly dark blood of vampires. Pale white and dark-pink fragments of undead flesh were scattered over our bodies and all around the chamber.

"Go ahhhhead," Jonah hissed, his barely human voice filled with contemptuous amusement. "Trrry thaaat again."

Then somebody laughed. I didn't recognize the voice. It was deep and male but not very loud.

I looked around. So did Alex and Smit. Jonah looked - as much as the Dark Spider can look like anything - puzzled and uncertain. His chin was raised and he seemed to be considering something that he couldn't quite pin down. The white spaces of his eyes were narrow and hard.

Beck - I still had my arm around her - jerked abruptly. Then she leaned against me. A massive gout of something warm and liquid splashed against me.

Rose gasped in horror.

I could smell and taste non-vampiric blood. I could smell the stink of almost instant death.

I looked at Beck.

She was all but dead. Her throat was gone and her head lolled, barely connected to her body by an exposed spinal cord and a tatter of flesh. The last of her lifeblood was bubbling and spurting from her gaping wound, but that was already slowing to a halt. Her eyes were open and staring, but the light of life was already gone from them.

And then, so quickly, that light vanished.

I hadn't heard, smelled, or felt a thing. Beck was just... dead.

"I tried again," a voice whispered from the darkness around us.