Chapter Thirty-Two
Thirty-Two
Dark Enterprises trembled around us as Lex began to speak in a strong, clear voice.
Unfamiliar words rolled through the dim expanse of the lobby, liquid and swift in some places, harshly accented in others.
Sparks of eerie blue light coalesced along the sigils drawn on the floor, gaining strength with each passing moment, but as they brightened, our surroundings grew darker.
I looked for Eric and found him standing a little distance away, balanced on the balls of his feet, expression alert but calm.
Ivan and Corrine were little more than vague outlines in the gathering gloom, back toward the lobby walls.
“It’s not working.” Eric looked from Lex to me. “What do we do if it doesn’t come to us?”
Resignation settled in my chest like a lead weight.
I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, despite what I’d learned.
Maybe, I’d told myself, the book I found in the Forbidden section was wrong.
But it wasn’t wrong. On the contrary, it confirmed something I’d suspected for some time now—that an intangible connection existed between me and the thing I’d freed, drawing us to each other.
Now was my chance to use that connection.
Reaching into a pocket of my khakis, I drew out the black business card the monster had given me.
How fitting, I thought distantly, that things should come full circle like this.
The card’s inky surface was blank, marred only by the dried smear of blood on one side.
Then I produced the scalpel I’d taken from Human Resources and used its blade to score my fingertip with one swift slash.
Deliberately, I pressed my finger onto the card for a second time, leaving new blood on top of old.
When I turned the card over, words again floated up out of the black—not the supplication I’d recited before, but something altogether different.
“One-Who-Hungers, I call to you.” Against the strong, measured cadence of Lex’s incantation, my voice sounded thin and weak. “Hear me and attend. By blood spilled and bargain struck, we are bound. By ancient rites and lasting covenants, we are bound. Come here before me, without delay.”
The tremors running through the building suddenly stilled.
Cables creaked softly overhead as the light fixtures continued to swing back and forth.
An oppressive but intangible weight fell across the lobby, the darkness around us deepening further while those eerie blue flames grew stronger.
I exhaled shakily and my breath formed pale clouds in air grown suddenly frigid.
Somewhere deep in my brain, in neurons I’d inherited from tiny, frightened mammals, I sensed the approach of an unseen predator.
When the elevator opened for the second time, it did so with a discordant noise that set my teeth on edge.
Fluorescent light flooded out, silhouetting a slender, cadaverous figure hovering two inches above the floor.
Slowly, The-One-Who-Hungers drifted closer, hands clasped in front of its crisply tailored suit.
Wisps of smoke or steam rose from its narrow form while something viscous and dark dripped from a wound on one spidery hand.
Those were the only signs of its battle with the executive board.
I wondered how many of them were still alive.
Lex continued to chant steadily as the elevator closed, plunging us back into near-darkness. When the Abomination spoke, its hollow voice overlapped with the incantation, insinuating itself into the empty spaces between words until it was all I could hear.
You’ve summoned me again. How unexpected.
My heart fluttered behind my ribs. “And you came. You had to, didn’t you? Because we’re connected.”
Clever little Colin. How did you learn that?
Letting the business card flutter to the floor, I drew a crumpled page from the same pocket.
One edge was ragged and torn where I’d ripped it free.
“I did my research.” Pausing, I tried to inject a note of defiance into my voice.
“Management doesn’t leave things to chance.
When They created the ritual to bind you Abominations, They added a fail-safe.
Even if someone was stupid enough to break your seal, you would still be bound—to Them.
They would become an anchor holding you to this world. Another chain you couldn’t break.”
Behind me, Lex’s voice rose, sending ancient words ringing through the lobby.
Blue fire flared in response, spiderwebbing across black stone as it looped and curved into elaborate whorls.
The-One-Who-Hungers paused just beyond the flames, unmoving save for the restless churn of its shadowy countenance.
“That’s why you haven’t devoured me,” I said.
“Not because of some promise. If I die before Management unravels the thread that binds us, you’re stuck.
You’ll be anchored here, to this one little world, until the last star dies and the universe sinks into cold, dead silence.
That’s a long time to hunger. A long time to starve.
” I felt Eric’s gaze on me but forced myself to keep watching The-One-Who-Hungers.
“You Abominations arose from the worst parts of humanity, but you’re a threat to far more than us.
If you were allowed to drain this world dry, you’d be strong enough to move on to the next, and the next after that, because the worst parts of us have no limit.
You’d swallow everything, eventually. That’s why Management bound you, and why They made sure that even if someone freed you, there was a fail-safe in place to keep you here.
” I paused to take a breath. “I wondered why you kept popping up everywhere I went. Now I know. You were terrified that if I died too soon, you’d be stuck on a dead chunk of rock orbiting a small and unimportant star instead of devouring the multiverse for the rest of time. ”
Slowly, the Abomination bent its neck. You’re right, of course.
Only Management can sever the connection between us.
All of this—it flung out its arms as if trying to encompass the devastation it had wrought—was to get Their attention, to lure Them out so we could chat.
They’ve been remarkably recalcitrant, however.
Even after I invaded Their building and took Their people, all They did was throw a few executives at me.
Its tone became almost petulant. I’m a little miffed.
I released the page and let it waft gently to the floor at my feet. “Maybe They’re waiting for the board to soften you up.”
It laughed, a sound like bone scraping on bone.
You humans are so stupidly optimistic. It’s almost endearing.
Slowly, it began to recede back from the flames outlining the ritual space.
I know what you’re doing here. I remember these markings, those words.
I’ll keep my distance, if it’s all the same to you.
But here’s a real promise, Colin: once we’re no longer tethered, I’m going to keep you around.
You’re fun. All that rage and self-loathing puts a smile on my face—or it would, if I had one.
It bent at the waist in a polite bow. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must slaughter the rest of the executive board and then wait for Management to appear.
I should be strong enough by then to… persuade Them to release me.
Lifting the scalpel still clutched in my hand, I pressed it deliberately to the side of my neck. “I learned a lot of things in Human Resources,” I called out, my voice surprisingly steady. “Like where the carotid is, and how quickly someone bleeds to death when it’s severed.”
“No!” Eric shouted from off to my right.
“Colin!” Amira screamed at the same moment.
You won’t do it. The Abomination had paused, its pale flesh fitfully illuminated by the dancing fire between us. You’re too selfish. Too desperate.
“I am those things,” I agreed. “But at least I’ll die knowing that I beat you.” Then I closed my eyes, lifted my chin, and started to draw the scalpel across my throat.
There was a whisper of sound, a moment of tilting disorientation, before icy fingers grabbed my wrist with bruising force and pulled my hand away from my neck. I opened my eyes. The-One-Who-Hungers loomed over me, stinking of despair and death.
“Gotcha,” I said.
Lex shouted something and blue flames roared in response, exploding upward from the circle around us to form a towering curtain of fire.
From the corner of my eye I saw Eric leap unscathed through the flames, his sword shining with brilliant golden light.
Behind him darted his comrades, Corrine swinging her chain in both hands while Ivan twirled matching knives, their weapons glimmering with a silvery radiance that reminded me of moonlight.
As one, they advanced on the hovering monster, moving to flank it on three sides.
Still holding my wrist in its hand, the Abomination wrenched back my arm.
Pain lanced through my shoulder and I let out an involuntary cry, the scalpel falling from fingers gone suddenly numb, but before The-One-Who-Hungers could do more than that, Eric was there, his sword flickering out in one blurring slash after another.
The grip on my wrist vanished and I stumbled away, instinctively holding my injured arm close to my body as Ivan took my place next to the monster, knives flashing in a deadly series of strikes.
Lex was still chanting on the far side of the ritual space, one hand clasping Amira’s, the other now holding a silver disc that shimmered with unearthly radiance.
Sweat gleamed on Lex’s forehead as they brandished the seal I’d broken when I freed the Thing, their voice hoarse now as they continued to recite Management’s incantation.
Next to them, Amira had closed her eyes, a look of fierce concentration on her face.