I could only hope that the feds would have some weaponry down there that would buy me some time. Edward was rubbing his arm. The big case that had struck him was leaning on the seat next to him. “What’s that?”
The case had a pink invoice on the outside, Anzio Ironworks. To: Milo Anderson/MHI. For Test and Evaluation Purposes. It was one of Milo’s free samples that he had bragged about picking up at the tradeshow. I popped the latches. Please be good. Please be good. “What the hell is that?” Since I was the biggest gun nut in the company, me not recognizing a firearm was especially notable.
Julie adjusted her bungee cord so she could come over to see. She whistled. “I don’t know, but it’s huge.”
It was ridiculous. It was shaped like a rifle, but it made my Barrett look like a .22. It was also disassembled to fit in the foam cutouts of the case, but it looked like it went back together fairly rapidly. “Where’s the rest of it?” Ed pointed at another case that had been under this one. Julie began dragging it out. Put together, this gun had to be longer than I was tall. The case felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. “Is there ammo?”
Julie cracked open the other one. “Here’s the barrel, muzzle brake is the size of a phone book, owner’s manual…Okay, there’s a few rounds.” Julie hefted one. “But they’re the size of bowling pins.”
“What is that? Freaking twenty millimeter? Isn’t that what fighter jets shoot? Never mind. I need to move fast. I’ll never be able to lug this thing around with me.” I guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. “I was hoping for a weapon, not a piece of farm equipment.”
“Almost there,” Skippy warned. “Much fog. Hard to see.”
I closed the case. The ground below us was soupy, but lights glowed through the thick mist. It seemed heavy enough that it had congealed close to the ground. The actual pillar of smoke was entirely gone, spilled loose into the city. And there, battered and looking like it had been the victim of an air raid, was the Last Dragon hotel and casino, the top floors blasted and scorched, dark without power, but most importantly, it was here. Hopefully our friends had returned with it.
“Put me on top of the Taj parking garage. You see it? Straight ahead. Next to the white one with the big dome in the middle.” The Hind turned and we were heading for the top. Most of the cars were gone, so there was plenty of room to land. I checked behind us, but couldn’t pick the dragon out of the dark. I couldn’t feel the buffeting effect of its mighty wings, so that was a good sign. Maybe I’d be able to get inside before I got stepped on. Unhooking my safety cord, I got ready to hop out.
Julie grabbed my arm. “You can’t—”
“I have to.” I took her hand. She was worried about me, but I was mostly worried that I was wrong, and it wasn’t after me at all. If the Nachtmar was after a different potential host…“Promise me you’ll keep moving.”
She pulled me in and gave me quick kiss on the lips. There wasn’t any time to enjoy it. “Be careful.”
And then our tires struck the top of the parking garage and it was time to go. “I will. I love you.” No time for hesitation, I took Abomination in hand and leapt out the door. Pain shot up my legs, but I managed to not spill over. Extending one hand, I waved at the Hind as it rolled away, blasting me with rotor wash. Julie waved back, hiding the fact that she was terrified, but for me. She was never scared for herself.
It wasn’t until they lifted off that I realized that she hadn’t promised to flee like I’d asked. “Oh, please don’t go stubborn on me this time. Run, Julie, run.” The chopper turned away and I lost sight of her. I jumped when Ed tapped me on the shoulder. He was so damn quick that I hadn’t even seen him go out the opposite door. “What are you doing here?”
Edward shrugged like I’m a sword master, what was I supposed to do in the sky?
There was a breeze. Then it was calm. Then another breeze. The dragon was flapping its way here, pissed off, on fire, and filled with a thousand years of nightmares that it really wanted to share. “Let’s go.” We had to get out of the open. The fastest way to do that was down the nearby car ramp. Every step was agonizing, but I limped and cringed along. Gretchen’s energy drink wasn’t helping much, but I could stop and whine about it when I wasn’t in imminent danger of getting squished. “Mosh is inside, downstairs.”
Ed just grunted. He didn’t care about the particulars. He just wanted the opportunity to stab a dragon. Tanya had no idea what a catch she’d made.
I got on the radio. “Come in, MCB. This is Owen Pitt with MHI. There is a dragon inbound toward the Taj parking garage. Repeat. Dragon. Anybody listening?” The ramp led down to the next level. It was darker here. The escaped nightmare fog clung to the floor, so thick that we couldn’t see our feet. The fog had no smell; it was simply moist and dense. However, the air smelled like oil smoke. Grant and Archer’s distraction had been nearby. Even if somebody was listening to the radio right now, I was probably the boy that cried wolf. “I say again, there’s a dragon about to land on the Taj parking garage. I’d recommend shooting it down. Stricken, if you can hear me, you’ll know I’m telling the truth real quick.”
There was nothing. Back in the real world, they might still be jamming, or they might have all been killed by the spilling of the nightmare world. Thinking of that…I looked toward the unseen floor. It reminded me of the glycerin fog of the nightclub where Green had got his foot sawed off. Would the Nachtmar stay in dragon form, or would it turn into something else and come at us sideways? Would it pick a new vision, or would it be too proud to give up the epic nightmare skin it was wearing?
There was a sudden roar and a crash as the dragon slammed into the concrete above us. That answered that question. The Nachtmar screamed its fury and filled the sky with an arc of fire. It illuminated the entire garage through the open sides. He probably didn’t realize he’d done me a favor, because the reflection made it easy for me to spot the enclosure that led to the casino. “Over there!”
Limping along, I tried to ignore the rumbling as the dragon shifted above. The jackhammer strikes that were making concrete flecks fall from above were its claws as it moved toward the ramp. Car alarms began going off, only to be silenced as the Nachtmar flicked the cars over the edge in annoyance.
Ed was half my size, so it wasn’t like he could help me as I hopped along nearly as effectively as Lacoco had, but he was also really fast, and I was just holding him back. He ran over to the door and opened it for me. Ed began fiddling with the door mechanism with a knife. I had no idea what he was doing. “Mosh is down a few floors.”
“Great war chief,” Ed agreed. “Go save.”
“Save everybody,” I agreed. Edward pressed something into my hand. It was a small leather bag. “What’s this?”
“Give Tanya for Ed,” he answered cryptically.
The dragon was coming down the ramp. Even with its wings tucked in tight and scraping along the walls, it was a tight squeeze down the path that could hold two buses side by side. Its head came around the corner first, undulating on its long neck. The beast was craggy, armored in plates, and covered in spikes the size of rhino horns. It was lightless black, but at the edges where the plates met was just the hint of red light, as if a great internal furnace was leaking heat through the cracks.
It was so imposing that for a moment I was frozen with fear. I was no stranger to terrifying beasts. This was something different, something that gnawed at the very edges of your psyche. I shook my head and broke the spell. In those few seconds it had drawn itself fully into the garage. Cars were crushed beneath its feet, or struck by a horn or tooth, lifted effortlessly, and rolled out of the way.
There was no way we could escape that thing. It was just too big, too powerful, and there was nothing standing in its way it couldn’t just plow through. But I still had to try.
I entered the casino. Edward shut the door behind me…
With him still on the other side.
“Ed?” I turned back. There was a small gla
ss window in the center. He was watching me through it with sad yellow eyes. Time to go. “What’re you doing?” I grabbed the door, but the handle wouldn’t engage. He’d disabled it with his knife. “Ed!” I pounded on the door. “Come on! Ed!”
The orc tilted his head to the side, studying me. The dragon was growing behind him, plowing its way through the fog and the parked cars. He took off his ski mask, revealing his real face. Ed gave me a little bow.
This was his fight. His greatest challenge. His sacrifice.
“Ed, you obstinate asshole!” I kicked the door. I kicked it again. It was too solid. I pulled Abomination around to blast the lock open.
Edward just shook his head disapprovingly. I was wasting time.
His time. He was buying me time.
I lowered Abomination. Edward nodded. Thank you.
All orcs are born with one gift, one area where they could achieve absolute perfection. Ed was the most lethal mortal thing I’d ever seen at hand-to-hand combat. Each orc was the best at one particular thing, but how could they know for sure if they never tested it? Orcs needed challenges, and Edward had finally found one worthy.
Edward turned around, drew his swords, and faced the onrushing nightmare dragon.
Surprisingly enough, it came to a grinding halt, tilting its massive head quizzically. Having a single tiny creature stand up to it with nothing more than a few sharpened pieces of metal was unexpected.
The Nachtmar had no idea what it was getting into…
The brave orc gave me one last look through the window. Go.
I wouldn’t fail him.
Chapter 24
I ran through the darkened hall. My brother’s memories had been clear. I had a good general idea of what part of the building he had last been in. My biggest hindrances to finding him were the typical, stupidly confusing layout of most casinos, the fact that the power was out so I had to navigate by flashlight, my leg was fragged, and the fact that I didn’t know if they’d still be in the same place. Mosh and Holly might already dead.
They’re alive. Edward’s alive too. He’s too fast to die. Not like that.
I had heard the dragon’s roar and felt the vibrations of their battle for quite some time. He’d slowed it. Maybe even stopped it, because nothing had come after me. Yet.
I’d found the right part of the building, the offices of the evacuated casino. I recognized the frosted glass of the cubicle area where Mosh and Holly had kidnapped Dr. Blish. Nightmare fog covered six inches of the floor. It was freezing cold. My leg hurt so bad that it had moved into a whole new territory of pain. So I had put the pain in a drawer in my brain and shut it. Something was torn in there, I knew it, but I could still move relatively quickly and I could still put weight on it, so screw it. Lee would be in a leg brace for the rest of his life because of me, and I’d never once heard him complain about it.
That was just one of the many people whose lives were screwed up because of me. The list was a long one. Lee’s leg had been ruined, but how many Hunters had died that day at DeSoya Caverns because I hadn’t been strong enough to take out Lord Machado faster? I was here searching for my brother, his talent had been extinguished, his soul had been cut up along with his fingers, and that had been my fault too. I was never good enough. I never had been, and never would be. Edward was probably dead now too, just bones stuck in the dragon’s teeth.
The fog was crawling up the walls.
The Hunters that had been holding out at the Last Dragon were surely dead. There was no way the Nachtmar let that hotel back into this world if they were still alive. They were either dead, or worse, locked up in the dream world to be endlessly tortured, while the Nachtmar wrung every last bit of terror he could out of their minds.
They’re fine.
No. They’re not. They’re all dead. Lacoco and VanZant were dead too. A couple of minutes after I learned that I’d been just as awful a force in Jason’s life as everyone else I’d ever known, I’d abandoned him to die, ripped to bits by a flock of gargoyles.
I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t reach the Nachtmar, everyone would have died. If the Hind had been crippled—
No. I could have gone back. I could have reached him. I could have gotten those other Hunters onto the helicopter. I was a hypocrite. I had tried to drown Grant Jefferson for abandoning me to monsters once, but I had done the exact same thing, only worse, because I’d done it to several Hunters. I hadn’t left to fight the Nachtmar. I had fled out of cowardice.
That’s not right. I’m forgetting something.
As I looked back over my life, all I could see was a long parade of failures. Even my successes were only postponing the inevitable. I’d defeated the Old Ones’ invasion. So what? They’d be back. Their victory was inevitable. All I’d done was use my finger to plug one hole of a leaking dam, only the whole thing was cracking and falling apart, and when it collapsed it would wash away the whole world. What was the point?
I found myself on the carpet, but I couldn’t remember falling down. The nightmare fog covered me completely, drifting over my face in a comforting cocoon. The cold was relaxing. I should just stay here for a while. Pushing on would only make things worse, cause more trouble, ruin more lives. It could be somebody else’s problem for once, somebody else’s responsibility. What was the point? It was like my father had always said, I wasn’t tough enough, I wasn’t smart enough, I didn’t try hard enough. Hell, I was supposed to end his life too, and the last thing I’d ever see in his dying eyes as the cancer consumed his brain was disappointment. The cycle never ended. They’d be better off without me.
Get up. Get up and fight. That’s the Nachtmar talking.
But I didn’t know which thoughts were my own. They were conflicting, colliding. Everything had gone dark. My flashlight had died, batteries leeched by the unnatural cold.
That helped me focus. It was trying to do the same thing to me.
Pushing myself up, the fog tried to drag me back down with chains made of self-pity. Images of sadness and failure filled my mind. “I’m stronger than you!” I roared. It was horrible, this terrible weight, but I managed to get back up. The fog wasn’t just around me, it was in me. Was this a glimpse into the sort of manipulations the human host had been enduring all this time? Lies, distortions, and half-truths…regardless of who you were, you would break eventually. The fog had taken on the consistency of foam and was clinging to my face. I had to physically grab bits of the stuff and hurl it away. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
I could have sworn that something moved in darkness of the corner of my eye. There was the rustle of dry leaves and a whisper. “You are good.”
“You’re not, you wretched piece of shit. Where’s my brother?”
The Nachtmar didn’t respond. Batteries dead, I blundered forward in the dark. The cold was making me stupid. It took a second for me to remember that Hunters always had a backup for everything. Two is one, one is none. There were glow sticks in a pouch on my armor, so I drew them out, cracked them, and shook them until I had a small comforting green glow to light my way. I tripped over a body on the floor. It might have been one of the Paranormal Tactical men or maybe somebody from STFU, but I couldn’t tell because his face had been dissolved.
“Mosh! Holly! Can you hear me?” They were here. Somewhere…But I had a sinking feeling that here and here were two different things. The Nachtmar was distorting reality. They were so close that I could feel them, but I felt like we were slipping in and out of the real world. The fog’s power was growing. The Nachtmar was feeding on everyone who was trapped in the mist. The nightmare realm was spreading. Good thing they’d evacuated. I couldn’t even imagine what this thing would be like if it could entrap an entire city. “Mosh!”
I got no answer.
But maybe that was because I was calling the wrong name…
The host had once been a normal man, corrupted. Heather Kerkonen had given me a pair of dog tags torn off the body buried in Dugway. My han
ds were shaking so badly from the cold it was hard to draw them free from my pocket. I held them up to the glow stick and squinted to see.
Kitashima, Marcus
I knew what all the info was for because of my dad’s tags. There was a service number, blood type A. The religion was an X, which if I recalled for that time period, meant something other than Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish. The name of the next of kin was Mary Kitashima. A wife? A mother? Was that who he had been demanding I find? The address section for the next of kin contact seemed to be only partially complete, Topaz WRC.
Look at Topaz.
That had been the host’s words. It had been a place. In his confusion, with his will being sapped and his mind being manipulated, the host had been searching for his home. WRC? It sounded vaguely familiar…Dr. Blish had told Mosh that all of the subjects had been volunteers that could blend in with the target populations. WRC…War Relocation Center.
I’d learned about this. My dad had made me learn about this. He’d wanted me to understand the fine line between men’s reason and fear, and just how quickly that line could be crossed. During World War Two the Japanese on the west coast had been rounded up, rights stripped, homes and property confiscated, and then they’d been imprisoned in several different godforsaken camps in the middle of nowhere. Over a hundred thousand people, just like that…Dad’s goal had been to instill a healthy mistrust for authority in his kids. That was one lesson that had stuck.
Topaz had been the name of one of those concentration camps.
“Marcus Kitashima! Come out and face me.” The fog recoiled away from me. It had been a long time since the Nachtmar had allowed that name spoken out loud in the presence of its host. “I kept my word. I know how to find her. I know how to find Mary. I know you can hear me. You need to push your way through the fog. Don’t let the Nachtmar stand in your way. Don’t let him stop you.”