Tim Marquitz - Echoes of the Past

I tossed a bolt of energy at Mihheer, but he sidestepped it and cast a counter spell. It wasn’t aimed at me. A glowing shimmer of red-orange magic sunk into the orb that hung above McConnell’s tub. There was muffled rumbled to thunder, sounding way off, and the room trembled beneath my feet. The color of the orb fluctuated and changed from emerald green to that of an orangey-sun.

Baalth reached up and let out a weak, “No!”

Another bolt of energy in my hand and ready, something grabbed my leg and pulled me off my feet. Sharp spikes of pain speared my ankle. I hit the ground and spun about, dragged toward the squirming sea of spiders. A grayish-green tentacle was wrapped around my leg, up to my shin. The bite of magic chewed at my skin through my jeans. A dozen more tentacles gyrated around the first, emerging from the book behind it. The spiders swarmed me as I was pulled into their midst. I wasn’t too worried about them, but I kept my mouth shut and my ass puckered, just in case.

Magic bolt still in hand, I threw it at the congregation of tentacles instead of the tendril holding me. I didn’t think it would do me much good to blast that one when there was a bunch more ready to take its place. The bolt hit the book and exploded, incinerating The Mist. A whiff of black smoke curled from the floor where the book had been, and I was suddenly free of spiders and tentacles alike. They’d all poofed.

Pissed I hadn’t thought of that when I’d fought the ice dragon, I jumped to my feet to go after Mihheer. The alien held Baalth before him, like a shield, and was moving up the steps toward the tub. I froze.

Mihheer laughed at me. “Isn’t it a shame we’re so bound to our masters that we hesitate when they’re threatened?”

I laughed. “You’re clearly not from around here, or you’d know I don’t work for old, Baalthy boy there.” My magic fluttered at my fingertips and I summoned a ball of fire. As I did, I cast a furtive glance at the demon lieutenant. He gave me the slightest of nods. “You’re not walking out of here alive, even if I have to kill everyone in the room,” I told the alien, taking a few steps closer.

A flicker of doubt danced in Mihheer’s eyes. I certainly didn’t want to kill Baalth, not that I thought I could even in his weakened condition, but I couldn’t let Mihheer get the upper hand. He didn’t care what happened to Baalth, and I had to make him think I didn’t either to keep things calm. It had to seem like I would go right through Baalth to get to him. Ultimately, there was only one thing the alien cared about.

“Stay back, demon,” he told me, making sure Baalth stayed in front of him as I drew even closer.

“Or what; you’ll kill your shield?” I twisted the fireball in my hand and mimed tossing it at the tub. “I’m guessing Gorath would be pretty damn pissed if I blew up the pool and shut down the portal, wasting all that precious energy. It must be hard to recharge after a thousand year nap and having to summon a servant from across multiple universes.”

Mihheer snarled, his free hand flickering with magic. I’d guessed his priorities right.

“Don’t do it,” I warned. “I’m betting I can destroy the tank before you can open the portal for your boss to siphon off the magic.”

Baalth glared at me, and it was pretty obvious he didn’t want me destroying the tank or the portal, but pushed to it, I would. My options were pretty limited, but I’d figured out what Gorath’s pet wanted most, and that was to refuel his master. The thing he tossed into the orb had probably redirected the portal to wherever Gorath was hiding, and he was waiting for the gate to open so he could drink his fill.

Unsure of what to do, I kept moving forward. If nothing else, I figured I could unsettle Mihheer while I thought of something to do to keep the portal in one piece, and Baalth, too.

All of a sudden, Baalth took matters into his own hands.

He spun and grabbed Mihheer and shoved him toward the tank. Unfortunately, Mihheer was the stronger of the two, all of Baalth’s energy having gone into the tub. The alien spun the lieutenant about like a doll and cast him aside without effort. He’d apparently done it without thought, as well. Baalth was flung backward…straight into the tank.

Mihheer’s eyes went wide when he realized it. A bluish shimmer erupted at his hand and I saw the orb swirl to life above his head. The sudden wash of the portal opening hit me, and I hesitated, torn between attacking the alien and saving Baalth. Mihheer was through the gate before I could decide. I heard Baalth hit the fluid and I knew it was too late for him, so I loaded all the power I could into the fireball I already had in my hand and chucked it into the portal after Mihheer.

That was when the world exploded.

I heard Baalth shriek, his voiced drowned out by a whistling hiss that built up in an instant and went mega-postal. There was a muffled boom — muffled because I think my eardrums shattered-and the room went white. Fiery energy obscured everything. I squeezed my eyes shut but there was no blocking the brilliant light. It blasted through my eyelids like they weren’t there.

My skin lit up like I’d snuggled with napalm, and then the force wave hit. It was so overwhelming, so powerful I didn’t even feel the impact. One second I was standing there, and the next, I was sailing through the air. I felt the crunch of something against my back and realized it was a body, and then it was the wall.

I felt that well enough. The extra clips exploded.

In total silence I screamed, unable to even hear myself. The wall shattered at my back and crumbled over top of me. The impact of each stone was nothing more than a dull thud across my body, but somewhere deep inside my mind, I recognized that each one must weigh hundreds of pounds. There had to be tons of rubble coming down, crushing me, but it all seemed so distant, as though it was happening to someone else.

My thoughts were in a fog as I lay there in blind numbness, vaguely noting the slowing down of the wreckage that thundered above me. I had no sense of time, no idea how long it had been since I hit the wall. There were no screams of pain or fear to focus on, none of the disaster staples I was used to. There was no sound at all, for that matter, save for the ringing in my skull that sounded like a Spinal Tap concert on steroids.

When it felt safe to open my eyes, the hint of shadows gnawing at the brilliance that seared my retinas, there wasn’t much to see but rocks. I was covered in them. Still numb, I really couldn’t tell if anything was broken-or more realistically, if anything wasn’t-but I tried to move anyway. The blanket of the wall tumbled away in chunks as I shook it loose. I pulled my arms free and rose up to my knees, clearing the rubble from my back with surprising ease. Though my eyes felt sunburned, I was surprised to realize I wasn’t crippled. In fact, I was unhurt.

I looked at my arms and chest and marveled at how I’d made it out of the maelstrom without a scratch. My borrowed hoodie had been shredded and there was blood all over me, but I didn’t see a single injury, or even a hint of one. Not until I looked to my legs.

About the middle of my left thigh was a massive, crimson stain. It ran from my knee up to my crotch and I immediately checked to see if everything important was still there. It was pretty easy considering my pants were mostly gone. I sighed to note I hadn’t been gelded in the explosion, all my parts accounted for. Still unsure of why there was so much blood, I searched around a little more and wanted to kick myself for being so stupid.

The vial of Lucifer’s blood had shattered.

I dug in my pocket and felt a sharp sting in my thigh as I bumped something. It was a piece of the glass vial embedded in my leg. That was why I wasn’t hurt. As much as it pissed me off to say it, I muttered thanks to Lucifer. The shard probably had a bunch of my uncle’s blood on it. When the glass cut into my leg, it mainlined the healing benefits, allowing me to weather the damage being inflicted. I was being healed as the wounds were being inflicted. That worked out pretty well.