A Girl's Guide to Guns and Monsters - Martin Harry Greenberg [75]
One more time before Tony muttered, “Close enough.”
“Close enough?”
“Look, like I said before, it’s mostly a matter of will. The rest is just a way to focus power.”
“I don’t have that kind of power.”
“How badly do you want Vicki back?” The phone casing cracked in Mike’s grip and although he couldn’t have heard it, Tony snorted. “That’s plenty of power, trust me. Light the candles and get the mouse.”
The mouse seemed oblivious to its fate. Mike thanked heaven for small mercies. He couldn’t have coped with a terrified animal. “Why . . . ?”
“Its death symbolizes the journey from one world to another. I don’t like this either, but I don’t think you can skip it. Put it in the bowl and cut its throat then set it on fire and start the chant. When you finish, the gate should open.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I’ll be on the first plane to Toronto. Don’t hang up, just set the phone down. I’ll chant with you.”
“Will that help?”
“It can’t hurt.”
The silver knife was surprisingly sharp. The mouse’s head came right off. It helped, a little, that it didn’t have time to suffer. Its fur had just started to smolder when Mike began the chant.
The rat things were getting bolder. She’d killed two more and had just given thanks that they didn’t hunt in packs when she saw a large shadow moving through the building across the road. Back home, a lot of predators hunted at dusk and dawn. It figured, Vicki noted silently, that would hold true here as well.
No, not moving through the building. Slithering.
All things considered, she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by giant snakes. “And no fucking sign of Samuel Jackson when I could really use him,” she muttered rubbing the back of her neck. She could feel the dawn approaching. The shelter she’d built would give Ren and the kids a chance against the rat things, but giant snakes were a whole different ballgame.
“What are you looking at?”
Vicki glanced down the road to where the portal wasn’t, and shook her head. “Nothing.”
The portal wasn’t opening.
The stone under the symbol remained solid.
He should have known this magic shit wouldn’t have a hope in hell of working. Charging around the crypt, Mike smacked the wall with both palms. “God damn it! Open up!” And again. And then with his fists. “Open the fuck up!”
There was a whoosh behind him.
He turned to see the mixing bowl melting in the heat of the flames.
Turned again to see the center of the circle flare white, then gray under a smear of blood.
“All right, you’re going to have to . . .” The flash of light she caught in the corner of her eye had probably been nothing more than an indicator that dawn was closer than she thought, but Vicki turned toward it anyway.
“Is that?” Ren’s fingers closed around her arm hard enough to hurt.
“It is.”
“But what if it doesn’t lead home!”
Vicki took another look across the road. She couldn’t see the snake. Probably not a good thing. “Trust me, we’ll still be trading up.” It was hard to find the Hunter this close to sunrise but somehow she managed it. “Gavin! Star! Wake up and come here. Quickly!”
Still wrapped in her imperative, they did as they were told.
Vicki shoved Ren out into the road and the other two out behind her. “Get them through the portal,” she growled. “Get them home.”
“What will you be doing?”
“I’ll be right behind you.” She could hear the slithering now. “Run!”
To her credit, Ren grabbed her friend’s hands before she started to move.
They’d made maybe twenty meters when the rush of wind at her back had Vicki spin around and squeeze off five quick shots.
Giant snake.
With arms, of a sort.
And no visible eyes.
The bullets dug gouges in the charcoal gray scales. It paused, head and arms weaving about three meters off the ground, but seemed more puzzled than injured.
“Vicki!”
“Keep running!” Next time she ended up on another world with teenagers, she’d add don’t look behind you.
On the bright side, the giant snake thing had to be keeping the rat things under cover.
Fifty meters further and hunger apparently won over annoyance. Vicki felt