Колин Глисон - The Rest Falls Away

"Go!" Victoria shouted, shoving a handful of rope toward Max.

"I'll not leave you—"

"I have the book," she said fiercely. "And you've been bitten. Go now!"

The vampires were closing in, their fangs gleaming as the sun began to fade under a swath of clouds. Lilith stood at the very edge of the line of light and dark, but she did not step farther. The smoke filtered up through the hole, hanging at the very upper edge of the room, and the flames were close enough that Max could feel their searing heat. Even if the sun weren't fading, the curling edges of fire would drive them from their safe area before long.

When Lilith would have reached for him, Victoria lifted her satchel and held it in front of her. "One move, Lilith, and I will throw the book into the fire."

Just then another rope dropped. Max caught it and wrapped it around Victoria's waist, tying it tightly. "Pull!" he shouted above, and immediately he found himself rising through the air. He swung back and forth like a pendulum, and, looking down, he could see his shadow cut through the circle of sun in a rhythmic pattern, the moving blemish in the yellow sphere growing smaller as he rose higher.

Victoria held on to her satchel, so she could not climb as well, but Max had tied the knot tightly and she was lifted slightly off the ground. As she rose, Phillip leaped into the light and grabbed at her foot, pulling her back.

"No!" he shouted.

Max was halfway to the top when he looked down and saw Phillip pulling on her. Victoria didn't seem to be struggling; she seemed frozen, hung suspended in the air, the heavy satchel pressed to her chest. Phillip had her foot and had angled her out of the light. He was nearly climbing up her legs to pull her back down, adding his weight and strength to the burden Kritanu struggled to raise.

"Victoria!" Max shouted. He couldn't go back; they were pulling him up, and he couldn't climb down.

She wasn't fighting; she wasn't struggling.

Phillip reached the rope around her waist, tugging on it, and Max watched in disbelief as the rope he'd just tied loosened and Victoria fell to the floor, half in the light and half in the dark.

The rope dangled uselessly from the dome.

"Phillip," Max heard Victoria say. She was not moving, just looking up at him. Her husband looked down at her, then at Lilith, as if asking for permission.

"Put me back. Now!" Max shouted up to Kritanu, but the rope continued to rise inexorably. Kritanu's face was no longer looking down from the dome; he had moved away in order to pull up the heavy weight. "Kritanu!" He struggled to loosen the knot, his fingers digging into the rough hemp around his waist.

Phillip pulled Victoria to her feet, and she was no longer in the sun. The rope hung behind her, still swaying.

"You can't save him!" Max shouted, trying to untie the rope around his waist so he could drop back down and help her. But his weight and the pull of gravity had tightened the knot so that he couldn't pull it apart. He was nearly to the top of the dome and was just beginning to notice the smoke.

The room was so large that the smoke, which should have been clogging and choking them, dissipated and hung near the tall ceiling; the fire was a greater danger than the smoke.

He saw movement as Lilith swept her arm in permission. Phillip fell on Victoria, and her head tipped back as though he'd commanded it. Max could almost hear the groan of need from him as he bent toward her open neck.

"The book, Lilith! He will destroy it!" Max shouted, swinging more wildly with his agitation. He could see the wall of flame moving toward the circle of vampires; but they were unconcerned. Fire would not harm them. Only Victoria.

"Stop!" shouted Lilith, extending her arm and reaching for Phillip through the air.

Phillip stiffened as though she had grabbed his neck, whimpering, but he did not move. Max could hear his labored breathing, and, thank God, Lilith's power released her and Victoria came to herself. She pulled away.

She fell back into the sunlight, and Phillip did not stop her. She lay back, sprawling in a much smaller circle of light than had been there moments before.

"If you want the book," she said, her voice steadier than Max would have expected it, "you let me go. I will give it to you."

Max looked down, tried to see what was happening below. And then, as his rope spun him in a gentle circle, he saw the line next to him move, tighten. "Pull!" he shouted above. "She's ready! Go!"

As Victoria rose through the smoke, he could hear her. "The Book of Antwartha. Lilith, the book is yours! You will search for it no longer!"

"No! Victoria, no!" Max shouted, and then heard the dull thud as the book hit the ground far below. And then, through the faint haze of smoke, he saw the manuscript, sitting in its circle of glowing yellow, waiting to be snatched up by the vampires.

Then he could see no more.

From below a woman screamed, shrieking in pain and rage, and suddenly Max was being dragged out of the smoky air into the fresh, beautiful sunlight.

He scrambled aside and set to helping Kritanu and Briyani raise Victoria.

When she finally reached the top, her face smudged with black, he helped pull her over the glass edges, careful not to cut her. But that didn't stop him from lighting into her in another way.

"You gave her the book?" he shouted. "Victoria!"

"What is left of it," she replied calmly, as if she'd just stopped by for tea. "I dropped it, and the Book turned to dust. It is gone forever."

Max stepped back, planting his foot firmly on the sloping roof. "I presume…" He paused, because if he didn't measure his words carefully, he might kill her. "I presume you did that knowing it would be the effect."

"Of course. As soon as the sunlight touched it, it crumbled, just as Wayren planned." She turned to follow Kritanu and Briyani off the roof of the burning building, leaving Max to follow behind.

He had several other things to say to her, but they would have to wait. Though she'd tried to hide them, he had seen the tears.

"We saw the black dome break," Kritanu explained when they had returned to Aunt Eustacia's home. "And recognized that something was happening in that portion of the mansion. And then the smoke came out." He shrugged. "We knew."

"You could not have appeared any more fortuitously," Max replied.

Victoria looked at the ugly red welts at his neck. The bleeding had stopped, and she'd had the pleasure of pouring salted holy water on his bite during their drive back into London. She had said very little since they left Lilith's hideout, leaving Max to explain what he could.

"Venators do holy work," Eustacia said from her chair. "The most miraculous things happen when we are fighting evil."

Miraculous? Victoria closed her eyes. She could not dismiss Phillip's face from her memory, the deep hunger… the pleading… the curve of his lips and the line of his nose. The beloved face, turned desperate and vacant.

You cannot save him.

Max's angry words reverberated in her mind. She could not save him; indeed, she had condemned him.

"The book was destroyed?" Eustacia's question brought Victoria back, and she looked up to see all eyes focused on her.

"I never intended to give it to her." She looked at Max.

He bowed his head in acknowledgment, but said nothing. He'd been uncharacteristically kind to her since they'd climbed down off the roof of the mansion and sat in the carriage, watching the house burn. Lilith's stronghold was destroyed, but there was no reason to believe that she was. Or Phillip.

There would be more battles in the future. Lilith would rise to power again, and they would face her.