Лорел Гамильтон - The Harlequin

«All of us bear a piece of the original darkness inside us, little girl. Feel the power of the night given human form and know true terror.»

I shook my head and said to Richard, «It's not her.»

He moved up beside me, as close as the other men would allow. We were getting to be quite a crowd again. «If I hadn't been in your dream with the real thing, this might be scary.»

I nodded. «But we've felt the real deal, and this ain't it.»

«This isn't the Mother?» Asher said. He'd gotten to his feet, scrubbing at tears on his face.

«No, it's a shadow of her, barely that,» I said.

Nathaniel drew in a large breath. «I smelled her once in the car. She smelled like something cat, and jasmine, and so many things. This has no scent, it's not real.»

The darkness began to press down like a shadowy hand, but it was only a shadow. The little vampires huddled and, beating at the doors, screamed louder. It had cleared the pews out so that there was no one but our guards in the aisles. The guards, and our vampires.

«The Dark Mother will consume you all, unless you lay down your arms and submit to us.»

The shadow of dark tried to crush us. Damian made a small sound. «Don't be afraid,» I said. «It's barely a shadow of her power. It can't hurt us.»

Columbine gestured as if she were crushing something invisible in her hand. The shadowy darkness tried to squeeze down around us, but I thought, Love, warmth, life , and the shadows shredded. The lights began to grow brighter again.

Requiem spoke from a small distance away. «This is not the darkness that hunted my master in England. This is smoke and mirrors compared to what came for him in the end.»

«Smoke and mirrors,» I said, softly, «misdirection like a magician's illusion. How do we know you're the real Columbine, a real Harlequin? All vampires know the rules, the masks. Anyone could pretend,» I said.

«You uppity little bitch,» she said. «How dare you?»

«That would explain them breaking the rules,» Nathaniel said. «They tried to kill you guys without giving you a black mask first.»

«Are you truly asking us to prove we are of the Harlequin?» Columbine asked.

«Yeah, I am.»

«Jean-Claude, does she do all your talking for you?»

«I am happy to have ma petite do my talking for me.» Which wasn't always true, but tonight, I was doing okay.

«I wanted to own you, not destroy you, but if you insist,» she said. A piece of blackness unwound itself from near the ceiling. It had to have been there all along, but none of us had noticed it. It was like some large black snake, if snakes were formless and could float. Oh, hell, it wasn't a snake, but I didn't know what else to call it. It was a ribbon of blackness that moved, and where it touched the lights, the lights went out, as if the light was eaten by the coming dark.

«It smells like night air,» Micah said, in his growling voice.

«It does,» Nathaniel and Richard said at the same time. They didn't even look at each other. The three wereanimals seemed intent on something I couldn't hear, or see, or smell. Then I felt it, a cool line of wind, and I did smell it, night air, damp, but not rain. Damp, but not rain. I drew in a deep breath. «Where's the jasmine?»

Half the lights on one side of the church had been engulfed by the sinuous stream of living darkness. The vampires and humans of the congregation had made a huddle of themselves on the other side of the church, as far from the dark as the closed doors would allow.

Requiem had pulled his cloak up around his face, but he was beside the stage now. «This is the darkness that killed my master.»

«How did it kill him?» Micah asked.

«The darkness covered him, hid him from sight, he gave a terrible cry, and when we could see again, he was dead.»

«How exactly, Requiem?» I asked.

«His throat had been torn out as if by some great beast.»

We had two lights between us and the consuming dark. «I smell wolf,» Micah said.

I shook my head. «The Mother of All Darkness doesn't do wolf, she does cats, lots of cats, no doggies.»

Nathaniel and Richard sniffed the air, too. «Wolf,» Richard said. Nathaniel nodded.

Edward called to me. «Can bullets hurt that thing?»

I shook my head.

«Let me know when you find something I can shoot.»

«We can shoot,» Claudia called.

The darkness was almost to the stage, but it didn't feel like her. It didn't feel like Marmee Noir. I closed down the warm fuzzy love flavor of the ardeur and reached out with my own power, my necromancy. I reached out not toward the coming dark, but toward the spot near the ceiling where it originated. Marmee Noir wasn't shy. If she'd been there, she'd have let us know. So what, or who, was it? Who held a piece of the dark inside them?

I searched the rafters near the high, vaulted ceiling. I almost heard a voice, almost a loud whisper, «Not here. Not here. I'm not here.» I actually started to look away, then realized what I was doing. Something was in the corner of the ceiling, someone was there.

The darkness curled along the edge of the stage and began to eat the bright lights that usually spotlit the pulpit. Columbine laughed, a high, joyous, cruel sound. «The darkness will eat you all.»

«You're not causing the darkness, Columbine, you or Giovanni,» I said.

«We are Harlequin,» she said.

«Tell your little friend hanging near the ceiling to show himself or herself.»

Her body went very still. It was better than any human facial expression. There was someone there, and she hadn't thought any of us would know. Great, now how did it help us?

The darkness was almost here. A darkness that smelled like damp night, and earth, and wolf, like something acrid on my tongue. It wasn't wolf as I knew it. But I was out of time to analyze it.

I yelled, «Edward, shoot into that corner there.» I pointed at the corner where I knew the vampire was hiding.

Edward and Olaf drew their guns, aimed. The darkness swirled toward us, toward Jean-Claude. I drew my gun and moved in front of him. Remus was beside me. «You're supposed to have bodyguards, remember?»

Haven came to my other side in a blur of movement. «Finally, something to shoot.»

«Not yet,» I said. «He's not here yet.»

«Who isn't here?» Remus asked.

Edward and Olaf's guns fired, and darkness swallowed the world, black, moonless night. «Shit,» Haven breathed.

They both moved in closer to me. I put my free hand on Remus's shoulder so I'd know where he was. I moved my leg to brush against Haven's, but his free hand found my back. At least we wouldn't shoot each other. We stood, pressed close in the utter dark, guns out, but nothing to see. How do you shoot if you can't see what you're shooting at?

Edward yelled, «Anita, can you hear me? We've got blood on the wall, but we can't see what we hit.»

I yelled back, «I hear you.»

«We're coming,» he said.

I don't know what I would have yelled back, Come, Don't come , because Remus said, «Wolf.»

Haven said, «Close.»

There was a wet, thick sound, almost soft, like a knife being pulled out of flesh. If I hadn't been straining my ears like a son of a bitch, I might not have heard. But it would have been okay, because Remus and Haven turned like one person, and moved me with them, almost like you move a partner on the dance floor. We fired into that sound, that smell of bitter wolf. We fired until it hit us back.

«Claws,» Haven yelled.

Remus was suddenly standing in front of me, enfolding me with his body. I felt him jerk, hard. I yelled, «Haven!»

«Anita,» he yelled, and he was still on my right. I put my gun around Remus's body and fired into the body on the other side of Remus. I fired until my gun clicked empty. But Haven was there now, his gun shooting into what was on the other side of Remus. Remus's body jerked, and for a moment I thought Haven had shot Remus by accident, then I heard a sound, a ripping, meaty, wet, horrible sound. Bones cracked, and Remus screamed. Liquid ran hot across my skin. I screamed. Claws grabbed at my shirt. I drew a knife, because it was all I had left. A claw cut across my breast. I cut the claw back. Remus's arms had tightened around me, pressing me into the claws. I couldn't see what was happening, and what I was feeling made no sense. Where the hell was the claw coming from?