"Windex?" I laughed, then aimed my spray at him. I was happy when it put him out. "Let's go, Ray."
We ran outside, meeting Jerry and Rafe in front of the dome.
"We've got them all. Ready?" Rafe pulled out his own machete. Guess he and Ray had the same taste in weapons.
"No, but let's do it. We've got less than thirty minutes of quiet time." I took the sword Jerry reluctantly handed me.
"Gloriana, please let us do this. Stay behind us and only come forward if it looks like one of us is in trouble."
Now I may be all for women's lib, but I know when to be smart. "Fine. I'll be your backup. But, all of you, don't take chances. If she's too much for us to handle, just take off and we'll throw the explosives down the cavern and hope that's enough."
"You said that Simon-" Rafe was very serious as he led the way inside the dome.
"I know. Got to take her heads. We intend to. I'm just saying we can't sacrifice our lives at this point, Rafe. Then where would we be?"
"I get it." Rafe turned and stared at each of us in turn. "Comes to that. I can take my medicine. I mean it. Run like hell. I can stay down here and face whatever. Glory, I don't deserve this." He pulled me to him for a quick kiss. "Sorry, Blade. Had to do that. Now let's go."
Jerry just pushed me behind him and followed Rafe down the path cut into the rocky hole that had obviously been drilled into the floor of the building. I swear I could hear the screams of damned souls as we stumbled down the crudely hewn steps. Rocks broke away and I held on to Ray, who'd managed to get in front of me until I was last in line.
We didn't speak, afraid we'd wake the sleeping goddess. Not that she was quiet. That horrible groaning, sucking sound that I'd heard before when I'd been out at the compound echoed off the walls of the cavern, which got wider the deeper we climbed. It also got hotter. It had been warm near the surface with a breeze that soon turned into a windstorm that tore at our clothes and made sweat pop out on my forehead. I wished I could tear off my scarf and wipe it away, but I was too busy hurrying to keep up with the long strides of the men.
Suddenly Ray stopped and I bumped into his damp back. I realized he must have left his pack at the top of the hole just as I had.
"What?" I whispered but it carried in the chamber, as loud as a shout.
"The wind stopped and look at that glow. I think we're here." Ray turned and I saw fear in his eyes. "Stay. Don't freakin' move."
There was a red glow that made it difficult but not impossible to see, and it was coming from a huge cavern that had opened at the bottom of the steps. We crept across the floor toward a golden platform with a wide set of stairs leading up to it. Jerry stopped at the bottom and glanced back at us. He used hand signals to get the men to spread out, shoulder to shoulder. Ray kept me behind him.
We were on the third step when a sigh and movement on the top of the platform froze us in place.
"Ah, what have we here? Dinner?" Suddenly a beautiful woman stood at the top of the steps, her body wrapped in a sheer golden robe. And what a body. It was perfection. She tossed a mass of flame red hair back over her shoulders and put one sandaled foot on the step as if to come toward us.
"Where's Simon? I am starving." She held out a hand covered in glittering jewels. "I think you are here with bad intentions. Naughty boys." She smiled and there was the glimpse of evil I'd braced myself for. "Mmm. I do so love a vampire threesome." She wrinkled her perfect nose. "I'll have the shifter for dessert." She waved her hand and I realized she'd frozen Jerry, Rafe and Ray in place. Simon's trick. She yawned, though, as if the effort took a lot out of her. So we had depleted her energy.
"No! Please." I heard my plea echo around the huge chamber.
"So you are the infamous Gloriana St. Clair. The one Lucifer has been so interested in." She laughed and my body trembled and quaked. It was all I could do to stay on my feet. "Oh, yes, hell is all abuzz about his latest intrigue."
"I am no one. Nothing." I moved around my men, touching Jerry. His eyes were the only things he could move.
"So I thought." She looked me over. "But Lucifer doesn't waste time on nothing, does he? It makes me wonder." She moved closer and raked my face with a golden nail, lifting it to her nose to sniff the blood she'd drawn. "Hmm. Interesting. I'd never have suspected." She staggered back toward her platform.
"What? What is special about me? I'm just an ordinary woman from London, turned vampire." I swung my sword at her head. "Here to kill you." It moved through air, hitting nothing.
Suddenly the beautiful woman was gone and there was only a moving mass against the far wall. Groans filled the chamber and I felt a pull, like I was being drawn toward that wiggling, writhing creature.
"Never ordinary, Gloriana. But it is not my job to answer that question. Kill me? How amusing." Suddenly the three-headed monster Simon had described reared her hideous heads and hissed.
I backed away, bumping into Jerry, who was suddenly no longer paralyzed; none of the men were. Had she decided to play with us? Enjoy the sport of taking them down one at a time?
Jerry shoved me behind him, then moved right, Rafe left, exchanging hand signals. Ray took the center. All of them were straining as the thing must be sucking at them too. Suddenly Ray went down to his knees, skidding toward the awful blob that rose up and had not one but three faces. One of them smiled and opened a mouth large enough to take Ray in whole.
"No!" I ran forward and slashed at it with my sword, drawing blood as I braced myself between Ray and the beast. Jerry and Rafe were by my side and held on to me when we were sprayed with a sickening sludge that stank of hell and worse.
"Duck, Glory." Jerry used his broadsword and the head that had pulled at Ray dropped to the rock floor.
"One down. We stay together. Go right." Rafe held on to me. Ray was on his feet now and the four of us linked arms to resist that insistent sucking determined to drag us in. Jerry's broadsword proved to be the only thing sharp and strong enough to take a head. The monster shuddered and screamed its outrage, slashing at us with teeth the size of my arm. We all fell back, but Jerry managed to get his sword under its neck and struck the killing blow again. Head two was on the floor.
"Now left." Jerry gripped the sword in both hands and I kept my arms around his waist as we slid toward the left and that last horrific head. This one seemed to gain strength as it did the work of its fallen sisters. It grew in size, doubling before our eyes. Its teeth were even bigger now; my legs weren't so long. And slits for eyes gleamed with the fires of hell itself. We couldn't even pretend to breathe in the fumes from the blood and haze of the miasma that had come out of the awful creature. Goddess. What a flattering word for such an abomination.
"Take her now, Blade." Rafe suddenly let go of our human chain and danced close to her as if to offer himself like a tasty treat. "Honoria! Like what you see?"
"Rafe, no!" I screamed and tried to get to him. "Don't let him do this!"
"Right!" Jerry ordered, then slashed with the sword as the thing took the bait, making a swipe at Rafe and getting a bite of his arm.
Rafe jerked loose and fell to the right, the head barely missing him as it fell to the floor with a noisy plop. Suddenly it was quiet in the cavern except for the sound of Rafe's labored breathing and my own moan at the sight of Rafe's bloody arm.
"Rafe!" I jerked free of Ray's grasp and slipped my way over to check on him.
"I'm okay, let's get the hell out of here. I think she's dead, but there are Energy Vampires up above scheduled to wake up and they won't be happy once they realize their powers just took a nosedive."
"No kidding." I helped him to his feet and turned to Jerry. "You were amazing." I looked at Ray. "All of you. Now let's get going. I may never feel clean again."
"Yeah, this was a hell of a job." Ray wiped his hand on his jeans.
"Ha. Ha." Rafe pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around his bleeding arm. "I mean it, let's hurry. And I do want to blow this place up. We can throw those explosives down the hole. Just to be on the safe side."
"Right you are." Jerry helped me get up the stairs, which seemed way steeper going up than they had coming down.
When we got to the top, Ray pulled out his package of explosives and a timer. "Ian said this has a ten-second delay. So I'm setting it now. Ready?" He looked around and we all nodded. "Go!"
We all ran outside, relieved that apparently we'd beat the clock as far as the EVs waking up, and shifted out of there. When we got safely into the woods, we landed under a tree and waited until we heard the explosion. The dome collapsed but the outbuildings were unharmed.
"Excellent planning. I guess Ian didn't want to blow up the entire countryside." I glanced at Jerry.
"It was wise of him. This way Destiny will still have his headquarters if he chooses to use them and there wasn't enough of a disturbance to alert authorities." Jerry nodded at Ray.
"I'm telling you, Blade. Ian's all right. He's going to be here awhile, so get used to him." Ray frowned down at his filthy clothes. "I'm going straight home to burn these. You okay now, Glory?"
"Yes, fine. Thanks, Ray." I kissed his cheek. "You were a champ down there."