Deep Midnight

Page 64

Ragnor smiled at her. She felt something flood within her at the sign of assurance, and of faith. With a shrug, he extended his wry grin to the man he called Hagan?the man she had known as Steven.
“You’ve spent your existence being jealous of me. This time, it’s going to send you on. Not to Valhalla, but to the Hel, or Hell, or whichever in truth you care to call it, after all these years.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I do. The old rules have been broken too many times. This time, you will die your second death, and it will be over.”
Jordan shrieked in both pain and surprise as Hagan reached for her, his grip so strong that it broke the ropes tied around her wrists and ankles, burning her flesh, nearly breaking bone. He drew her to stand before him. He lifted her hair. She felt the heat of his breath. His teeth were lowering. “Watch brother,” he whispered. “As I take her .. . for eternity.”
She saw, just below her, a small puddle of the holy water that had fallen before. It had pooled between two tiles in the ancient floor.
She slammed her elbow back into his ribs and ducked for the water. Not enough! Still, as he roared, ready to restrain her again, she splashed the little droplets into his eyes.
He roared with pain.
She was free.
She raced forward, straight into Ragnor’s arms. He caught her shoulders, met her eyes. He moved her carefully aside.
Ragnor walked toward Hagan. He sensed the movement, and went flying upward toward the ceiling, landing on the rafters. Ragnor followed him. With a sudden, fierce shriek Nari went flying after Ragnor.
He threw her back down. She landed hard on the floor. A massive wave seemed to move across the ceiling as Hagan cried out to the others. “Seize him, kill him, take him, you fools! I am half blinded.” Before the others could rise, Ragnor had returned to the floor. As Hagan’s followers came after him, he caught them one by one. He took them by their heads and shoulders ...
Twisted.
Dropped the pieces.
Someone came flying out from a side altar after him, brandishing a sword. The creature never reached Ragnor.
Lucian slipped down from the rafters, seized the attacker by the neck, took the sword, and ended him quickly.
Others suddenly began to appear. Jordan ducked down, for it seemed as if the ancient church was filled with bats.
Bats, wings, noises ... a chattering, soft at first, then growing in a crescendo.
The door to the church was suddenly flung open.
Sean Canady came in, vials strapped to his chest, a sword at his waist, and buckets in both hands.
He threw water in a swinging, upward, arc.
Screams of agony echoed so loudly that Jordan covered her ears, praying. She looked up just in time to see a shadow forming, coming for her ...
She turned and fled toward Sean, ripping one of the vials from the holder on his chest. She tossed the holy water at her would-be attacker. She watched, still amazed, as he shrieked ...
And decomposed.
The noise suddenly died away.
The floor was littered.
With freshly dead ...
And decaying bones. Then a massive flutter, like wings, seemed to vibrate the entire structure. She looked up. The massive shadows of Ragnor and his brother met again and again. Sean started to move forward.
Lucian was suddenly at his side, holding his arm.
“No. Ragnor must finish this himself.”
The shadows came back to the ground.
The two men stared at one another in fury.
“Who wants to live forever?” Ragnor inquired quietly.
Hagan let out a roar and rushed him. It was a mistake. Ragnor was ready. He bowed his frame and caught his brother by the head as he would have butted him into the wall.
There was a twisting sound. Sickening. Horrible.
Then all that Ragnor held was bone that fell from his hands to the floor, becoming dust. He stared at his hands.
There was a sudden motion at the side of the church.
Jordan turned to see Nari, ready to slip away. She raced to the door, breathing heavily, ready to face the woman.
She realized she had no weapons.
Ragnor had come down the aisle. Nari turned to him. “Ragnor! How can you forget what we were?”
“Time, my dear, has had a wonderful effect on that. Then again, there was the fact that you betrayed me? with my brother?trapped me, and tried to kill me.”
“Ragnor?”
“Throughout history, Nari, every time you’ve escaped ...”
“But Ragnor, you can’t!” she whispered. She walked to him, placing her hands on his chest, looking up into his eyes. “Ragnor ...”
He lifted his arm and wrapped it around her. like the others in the room, he had worn a Carnevale cape.
It covered Nari as he cradled her to him.
Then he dropped his arm.
A great pile of dust fell to the floor.
Ragnor turned to Lucian. “It is over,” he said softly.
Lucian nodded.
“I’ll deal with the local law enforcement,” Sean said, indicating Roberto where he lay on the floor, just coming to.
Ragnor inclined his head in agreement. He kept walking down the aisle. He reached out a hand to Jordan, just far enough away so that she would have to take a step forward to accept.
“You are different, you know.”
“Oh?”
“A thousand years worth of different,” he said softly. “Take my hand?”
“Where will we go?”
“We’ll have to see,” he told her. “You’ve wanted the truth. Confessions. There are lots of them I can give you now.”
She inclined her head. “At the least, it must be interesting listening.”
“I didn’t intend to talk all night.”
She smiled and reached for his hand, then hesitated.
“Cindy!”
“I’ll get her back to the hospital,” Lucian assured her.
“And Raphael, he may be hurt?”
“We’ll all go to the hospital,” Lucian said with a shrug.
“Well?” Ragnor offered his hand again.
She took his hand and smiled.
“Just so long as you don’t talk all night...”
They left together.
He could talk... and talk. And she wanted explanations. Lots of them.
But...
Only time would really tell.