And It Arose from the Deepest Black (John Black Book 2) (22 page)

17

I had time.

Time enough to wonder.
Did he damage her mind?

Or can I reach it?

I had to try.

I
pushed
. Hard. Too hard, probably.

Added to the pushing Jake had done to Sigma, I realized fleetingly that this could be a very bad idea. Would I break Sigma? Burn her hollow like I’d done to Petrus? Did I want to? No. I pulled back a bit, like a firefighter trying to control the hose.

A 20-story, serpent-like creature from Planet X (or The Land Before Time, or whatever) was formidable enough. Remove any rational thought from the beast, and things might get really bad.

Dicey
, my grandmother used to say. The situation was definitely dicey.

But there was no time for consideration. Blunt-force attack, direct to the mind. I had to stop Sigma, or start planning for my next eventuality, which was, at the very least, a great deal of Gorgol-induced pain.

STOP!

She didn’t.

But she did divert, again. No, I wasn’t lucky enough or quick-thinking enough to route her right back toward Jake. I was just able to knock her aside, sending her into a wide, looping arc that only seemed to delay the inevitable.

Pip and Bobby ran up on either side. “She’s coming back!” Pip shouted.

Sigma circled around Alpha. I noticed Jake climbing one of Alpha’s legs, no doubt seeking his roost on her shoulder. He paused, high on one side, looking down at us. “Prepare yourselves, for your time is nigh!”

I gave Bobby a sidelong look, and he rolled his eyes in response.
Your time is nigh?
Was Jake quoting something again, or just tapping some artsy-fartsy muse? Either way, who talks like that?

“John,” Bobby said in a voice low enough that only we could hear him. “We can worry about the drama queen later. We’ve got a more immediate problem.” He pointed.

Sigma was bearing down, nearly on us.

At that moment, Jake must have reached his perch, because Alpha began to slowly retreat, like a cement truck backing up, giving Sigma space for her onrushing attack.

“Deflect her!” I yelled to Bobby and Pip. “Just make her turn aside!” I raised my hands, preparing.

“What good is that? She’ll just come back again,” Bobby said.

I nodded. He was right. But we needed time to think, to come up with a better plan. “I know, but I’m not sure what else to do!”

Sigma raced toward us, and we all raised our hands in what appeared to be a futile, minuscule gesture before the huge beast.

“Now!” I yelled. And we each pushed at her mind.

The three of us, all at once.

Oops.

Sigma’s head recoiled like a boxer in a movie, on the receiving end of not a quick jab but a roundhouse to the face. She uttered a short, guttural shriek of pain. And her body spun away from us at a sharp angle.
Too much
, I thought, just as her long scaly tail whipped around.

Directly into the three of us.

From above, from the helicopters, it must have been hilarious. A pro bowler knocking down the pins.
Strike! Put an X on the board!
Bobby, Pip, and I went flying in different directions. Each of our bodies tried to sluice out of the way, but Sigma’s tail was massive and thick, and the blow fell so quickly there was little we could do.

So, for the second time, I went airborne courtesy of a Gorgol.
We have reached our cruising altitude of 30 feet, so the pilot has turned off the “fasten seat belt” signs. You are free to be dashed to pieces violently. Thank you for flying Gorgol Air.

Thankfully, it was her tail. When Omicron had slashed at me with a hand — claw? paw? hoof? — it had torn into my body even as it threw me like a rag doll. This was blessedly simpler. A bat hitting a home run. I landed, aching, far back in the yard, but my body quickly pulled itself back together. Go Alien Thorns™!

But the blow also stirred up my anger. As I stood, my hand instinctively went to my belt, like an abusive father about to lay down a seriously old-fashioned whooping. And just like such a father
should
feel, I was ashamed. I lowered my hand as I noticed motion once again in my direction.

Sigma curled through another wide arc, rearing back to attack. I looked left and right, not seeing either Bobby or Pip. My hand started to go for the belt buckle again, my body wanting to turn the cheap leather into a sharp weapon of death again.

N
o
.

There has to be a better way
, I thought.
Jake can reach these creatures. Why can’t I?
But I was pretty sure I knew the answer: time. I needed more time, in closer proximity to the beasts, to figure out the lock that kept their minds closed to me.

I needed Sigma to slow down. To
freez
e
.

Of course.

As she approached, I raised one hand, imagining my task. I pulled at the heat within Sigma’s massive body as she catapulted toward me.

And she slowed.

Not stopped, but reduced speed, movement. Something was happening. I pulled harder, seeing Sigma’s writhing, snakelike body gradually slow. Her scaly skin took on a frosted sheen, the water in her body chilling to ice as I pulled more and more heat from inside.

Like I’d done to Sol before, I started from the ground up, letting the energy seep out of her and into the grass and dirt. She slowed, but still came on, getting ever closer to me. With a growing fire inside me, I pulled still harder.

Come on! Come on! Work, dammit!

A feeling overcame me. A rage. A strength. A certainty.

And Sigma came to a reluctant halt just feet before me, her body crackling into a frozen statue of a giant monster. Even her arms had stilled, unable to break my spell.

High above me, her long neck and head remained free. Her wide hood flared in renewed anger, unaware of why her lower body no longer responded. Why she couldn’t move.

As I continued to suck the heat from her, moving ever upward, I sent a mental tendril toward her brain.
Let me i
n
.
I searched for her mind’s invisible doorway.

LET ME IN!

Sigma had other plans. She pulled back the parts of her upper body that could still move, then quickly lurched forward, preparing to bite at me, devour the thing that had caused her so much pain and strife.

Unconsciously, my right hand pulled at my belt, sliding it free. Although my rational mind was too occupied with freezing her body and searching her brain, something primitive inside me — inside my cells, maybe — reacted with foaming anger.

I didn’t feel the fire coming over me, not directly. But if a mirror had been put in front of me, I wouldn’t have recognized my own face, twisted in hate. The belt came up, now rigid. It changed texture and density, becoming hard metal, then morphing to a point. Grimacing like a crazed clown, all teeth, I awaited Sigma’s attack.

Two John Blacks existed in one body. One methodically sapped the heat from Sigma while trying to find a gateway to communicate with her mind.
Let me in, Sigm
a
.

The other John Black raged. I would do to her what I had done to Omicron, stab into the soft tissue inside her mouth and kill her.

Kill her.

Kill…

So. How was your day?

18

The world became slow motion as I almost gleefully awaited my chance to destroy Sigma.

And then something unexpected happened. Sigma’s head was knocked sideways by an object flying through the air. A
yellow
object, coming in from the left.

Bobby.

In that instant, I sensed the split inside myself, the two of me. Simultaneously, I thought,
Bobby!
and
No!

He slammed into the side of her head, a battering ram sending her attack off course. Away from me.

“No! I’ve got this! She’s mine!” I shouted. It was irrational and pointless, but it was how I felt. At that moment, I
wanted
Sigma’s attack.
Wanted
to take her down. I knew I could.

And as the angry side of me won over, the other side’s work, trying to freeze and control Sigma, slowly waned.

Shifting to my right, I tried to regain the monster’s focus. “Come on!” I said, waving my free hand. In the other hand, the pointed, elongated sword-spear that used to be my belt grew even longer. It seemed to hum with energy, the energy I was pumping into it.

Bobby fell away from Sigma, dropping to the ground near me just as the creature shook her head. I want to say that I knew he was fine, that as a friend, I checked to be sure. But I didn’t. I ignored Bobby, whatever his state might be, and focused on Sigma.

Bobby’s blow must have stung or at least annoyed her, but other than his body itself, Bobby was weaponless, so his attack was nothing more than blunt trauma. Something we had witnessed the Gorgols overcome countless times. She turned her neck and head toward him, her lower body still frozen in place, but thawing.

“No! Look at me!” I yelled, barely intelligible.

Sigma leaned toward Bobby as he backpedaled on his hands and feet.

Both verbally and mentally, I screamed at the creature. “
NO! ME!
”

She reacted, her glowing amber eyes pulsing as she shifted to look directly at me.

My mental push found something to hold on to.
You
. She didn’t think the actual word, but I sensed the concept. Recognition. Sigma reared for another lunge, and I stood ready.

I was exhilarated. I would stab into the monster’s brain with my sword, and she would die!

I felt sickened by the rage…

A rictus grin came over my face.

Nausea swelled within me…

My whole body thrummed with excitement.

The nausea didn’t dissipate so much as it was contained. Like the cap on a soda bottle quickly tightened before the fizzing drink can explode, something in me clamped down on the revulsion, making it instantly stop.

All that was left was the glee and the rage and the ready.

There was something about this creature, all of the Gorgols — creatures of anger and fear — that brought out those feelings in me, too. Like it was too familiar. Like it was contagious.

No, it was too easy to put the blame on something else. The thorns had changed me, and I embraced it. The worst part of me came forward.

Sigma’s open maw lunged for me, an onrushing train of saliva and teeth.

And again, something came from the side, slamming into Sigma’s head, this time red.

Seriously?

Pip.

She leapt at the beast, sword stretched out deadly before her. It wasn’t technically the murder stroke, but it might as well have been called that. Driving down from her arcing jump, Pip drove her sword into one of Sigma’s glowing amber eyes, piercing it as she fell, pressing the weapon deep into the socket.

“
NO!
” I screamed again. “
MINE!
”

Sigma reacted instantly, blind in one eye, blinded by pain. Her upper body, the only part that could move, twisted and writhed insanely, violently, causing the thaw to accelerate. How long until she would be free once more? I was sure Pip would be shaken off, tossed aside, but somehow she held on, her hands glued to the hilt of the sword that now protruded from the Gorgol’s missing eye.

I didn’t know if the blow was fatal — how could I? All I knew was rage. And that rage suddenly shifted.

Just who the hell did Pip she think she was, taking something from me? Taking
this
from
me
?

Somewhere, far, far in the back of my mind, an echo of the nausea roiled, just a bubble from a dying boil, popping and then gone. Resistance to the bloodlust within me died with it.

Reaching down into my powers, pulling into myself both mentally and physically, I prepared.

And then, screaming, I jumped up, flying into the air, sword-spear raised and ready, toward my target.

Toward Pip.