Chapter 8
Wil sensed something close to her ear, examining her; she felt hot little breaths on her as the strange presence pressed closer. Whiskers, prickly and alien, touched her face, the creature rubbed its cheek against hers, leaving a cold wet trail where it touched.
She giggled quietly.
"Nice kitty."
The warm presence left her and she lay there - for how long she did not know. The stars seemed to be disappearing, as she couldn't see barely any of them at all now. How odd, she thought. Wil felt numb and cold - so very cold. But peaceful too.
A shape loomed over her - blocking the view of her last remaining star. A stab of fear went through Wil's chest and it seemed as though her consciousness, her soul maybe, fell back into her body. Her vision cleared and it began to hurt again.
"No, please no, Flin." She gasped reflexively, trying to move.
"Shhh, baby," Azrael put his finger to her lips. "It's alright now, I'm here."
She blinked and saw him now. Wil looked at Azrael stupidly for several seconds.
"About fuckin' time," she croaked weakly.
He grinned. "That's my tough cookie - not dead yet."
"I think I'm bleeding inside."
"Maybe. I think most of this stuff on the outside came from him."
"Who?"
"Uhhh, never mind." He flicked his eyes sideways - a look of horrified disgust overcame him.
"Lo...look out for Flin - he's around here somewhere. Don't let him..."
"It's okay, baby," Azrael reassured her, "I think he's...not going to be a problem - for a while anyway." He looked to his side again, the same look clouding his features once again. "The sick fuck."
"Yeh, I think...think he go insane."
"Eh? Oh yeah - him too. He stayed too long. Fool."
"Y'know, I had the strangest dream - I thought Fluff was here, protecting me."
"What!" Azrael's head snapped up and he feverishly scanned the darkness, in front, to the side, then to the rear, wincing with pain as he did so. "Here you say?!"
"Yes, then...rubbed my face and left. What a strange thing to dream."
"Hmmm, yes," he said, calming at the word 'left', his eyes on the thick smear of blood on her cheek. "Yes, indeed. Strange."
"Azrael?"
"Yeah, baby?"
"I can't see you anymore. Where have you gone?"
"Shit! Let's get you fixed up!"
"We...we need Lizzy...for that. I see if I can find her...in here."
"Why don't you just accept me? Don't be a fool!"
"I would be...if I did. Here she is. I feel her. Azrael?"
"Yeah, baby?"
"Kiss me."
He lent forward and carefully placed his lips over hers. She responded weakly - her tongue brushing his before she went limp.
"Wil! Wil!"
Her eyes opened once more, and blinked.
"Oh. Oh good lord." Elizabeth recognized the face hovering a few inches from hers. "Azrael. Did we win?"
"That remains to be seen, baby."
"I'm not...oh, forget it. Owww," her forehead creased, "I hurt. Body sore."
"Let me take care of that." He moved one hand across her torso, sliding across the blood-slicked surface.
Elizabeth lay back, lacking the strength to raise her head anymore. She tried to remember what had happened - the back yard, some fighting started...
"Ohhh!"
The warmth began to enter her, a sizzling new energy. The coldness slipped from her limbs as though the afternoon sun had touched her with its rays. Her breath flowed from her in one long motion. She felt as though she were floating amidst pure, warm energy.
"I love it when you do that."
Azrael did not reply, focusing; there was an awful lot of damage to repair here. He'd got here just in time - even so he couldn't heal her completely in one hit. If only Wil would cooperate!
Azrael had to stop, any more and he wouldn't be able to get out of here. Wil, and Elizabeth he added as an afterthought, would live now; they'd just be a bit sore. Though it occurred to him that that didn't really matter because if they went with him they'd never need this worthless flesh sack again.
"Oh, don't stop!"
"Sorry, ba...Elizabeth," he said," we have to get out of here."
"Out of this area?"
"No."
"Out of town!"
"No. Out of this dimension."
"Pardon?!"
"Too difficult to explain but we have to leave now! There's more of these fucks on their way!" He giggled inside. These little white lies will get you sent to hell one day, he thought, suppressing the grin.
"Oh golly fuck! Where shall we go? How much time do I have to pack?" She looked at him, wide-eyed, alive. "Ewww! What's happened to your face?"
"Quite. Just trust me. None. Had a little accident." That was an understatement - a deep burn disfigured the left-hand side of him. It looked as though an intense heat had melted his face. "Now follow me."
He pulled her upright and turned her in the right direction, standing between her and the body. "One second," he said.
Azrael turned and spat on Flin's shredded corpse. He turned back to Elizabeth.
"Sorry, just had to clear my throat." He flashed her a twisted grin. "Now, this way."
They set off - Azrael towing Elizabeth after him by the wrist.
"Oooh! Do we have to go quite so fast - I'm frightfully sore! Ewww, what's this stuff all over me? It's all sticky!"
"Yes, we do. Uhhh, it's grape juice, I think. No, don't lick it! It's probably gone off by now. Bad for you!"
"Does that burn hurt? It looks painful."
"Yes, it hurts just a little bit. Could you be quiet please?"
"Oh! Sorry. You're probably trying to concentrate and I'm getting in the way and making you get lost or something, which we don't want as time is, as you say, of the essence and..."
They stumbled through the dark with Elizabeth gabbling away as Azrael towed her towards his intended destination - the top of the hill where the warning beacon stood.
"Hmmm, this seems like a good spot for a ceremony." He turned a look back in the direction of the waterfront. There were lights burning there, even though the hour was still early - too early for that much activity.
"It's like stirring up a nest of ants, don't you think? This night could be the most exciting of their pathetic lives." He smiled to himself, thinking. "Maybe I'll come back some time and make it just that little bit more interesting."
Elizabeth looked up at him as he gazed and muttered to himself.
"Azrael? Perhaps we could just hide in Cambridge or somewhere, until they get tired of looking for us and go home? Mama and Papa will be terribly worried when they find I've been out all night."
"They're very persistent and clever people, sweetie. They may think to look in the outlying towns."
"Oh." She appeared deflated by his refutation of her plan.
"Now, my dear," he faced the beacon, "I must ask you to be quiet as I have to concentrate."
He sat down, cross-legged, hands in his lap, a serene expression of utter focus on his features. It was like he was meditating. Elizabeth stood off to the side and watched, curious.
Azrael began to mutter under his breath in a strange tongue, perspiration forming on his forehead. Elizabeth said nothing and listened intently for a while. A confused furrow creased her forehead; then she shrugged and lost interest. Occasionally she looked around her. She became aware of her state of dress and buttoned her shirt up as best as possible, tucking it into her trousers. Elizabeth was just becoming highly suspicious that the dark spots on her weren't grape juice at all when there was a 'whoosing' sound. She looked up, startled. There was a faint glowing rectangle hanging in the air, like a doorway, with a strange humming noise emanating from it.
Azrael breathed heavily and stood up, staggering slightly.
"There it is, sweet pea," he said, triumphant, "our ticket to safety." He looked at his creation. "And greater things," he added mysteriously.
"It's very...uhhh, nice," she said admiringly. "What is it exactly?"
"A doorway."
"Oh. Of course." She looked at the glowing rectangle again. "Have you gone completely mad by any chance? Is that why you were muttering a recipe for wheatie biscuits in Latin over and over?"
"Is it?" He looked at her, startled. "That bastard Thracian was pulling my tit! I knew it! I should've looked it up." Azrael smacked his fist into his palm, grinding something imaginary into dust as his eyes stared into the middle distance. He glanced at her.
"OK, to be honest it usually doesn't matter what you say - a mantra is good for focusing the mind and it impresses the tourists, as it were. It's incidental. I didn't know you understood Latin?"
Elizabeth nodded, hoping to appear reassuring, as he seemed to be a bit upset that his sacred chant had turned out to be culinary in nature.
"Oh yes. The benefits of the finest education Papa could buy. I do Greek too, and smatterings of others like Aramaic. I wish I'd been a boy then I would have got to learn interesting things, like business and things like..." She began to set of on another verbal ramble.
"Did you say you do Greek-style?" Azrael interrupted, his face was intense for a moment. He shook his head violently, "Forget it, forget it - the point is that this doorway will take us to a safe and secure place where those...soulless bastards won't be able to get at you."
Elizabeth, not following his Greek reference at all, looked at the glowing rectangle, unsure. She stepped closer to it - feeling a strange tingling sensation as she got closer to it. She was about two feet away from it now. Behind her back Azrael silently urged her on, as though will power alone could drive her through the doorway.
"Oooh, it feels all funny on my skin!"
Azrael rolled his eyes at the heavens.
"Come on, Liz - we haven't got all night!" She had jumped when he spoke, as she hadn't realized he moved so close behind her. "You can trust me."
"Oh, I realize that, my dearest Azrael. I was just thinking we should wait for Wil to return and get her vote on what to do next. After all, this is a free colony." She took one more step toward the portal, fascinated, standing a few inches from it, her hand reaching out and skimming the surface.
Azrael's patience snapped just then and his self-control gave in.
"Look!" Azrael cried, "There they are! They coming - we don't have much time. We've got to go! Now!"
"Where are they? Where?!" Elizabeth had turned, looking for the alleged intruders, when Azrael gave her a nudge with his big hand. Elizabeth over-balanced and toppled over backwards toward the glowing portal. Her flailing, outstretched arm touched the portal's event horizon and disintegrated in a shower of sparks. Elizabeth didn't see her hand and arm disappearing as she was twisted around, her eyes on Azrael. Rather she felt a very odd sensation.
"Crikey!" she said.
Azrael watched her round faced, stunned expression disappear through the portal. He gave her a reassuring little wave and smile just as she was sucked into Hell.
The huge, bipedal creature stood there in the dark, the only sound intruding on the scene being the hum of the portal and rustle of the gentle night breeze. Azrael leaned forward, hands on his knees and breathed - exhausted.
She will be the death of you, he thought. One of them anyway.
He straightened up, massaging his horned forehead. "Which one though? Right now I'm picking stress-induced heart attack from that blonde. I swear the second I don't need her..."
He looked around, scanning the area one last time for anything small and furry. A shiver ran down his spine as he remembered.
"OK, here we go. The next part at least should be relatively easy. This time I'm sure of it."
Azrael stepped into the portal, stooping his eight-foot frame to fit through it.
"Why are these things never tall enough?" he wondered.
Azrael disappeared in a flash of orange sparks.
Flin's mutilated corpse lay on the windswept hill, the grass around him black with his own blood. It was a frozen, timeless scene that spoke of violence and dark, shattered dreams.
A bubble of blood formed at Flin's ripped lips as air escaped his body; probably the result of gas shifting within the corpse - perfectly normal after death. But to any one who had been close to the body, and for some strange reason listening, it did sound suspiciously like this corpse had just said, "Fuck".
Continued in Chapter 9
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