The Bleed: Book 2: RAPTURE by David Moody (best selling autobiographies .txt) 📕

behind him. She’d grabbed the first thing she could lay her hands on, which just happened to be a folding chair. Maddie looked up in time to see her strike the broad back of the beast.

“Great, Saturday morning wrestling.” Maddie was pushing up off the ground, her chest throbbed, her back was battered and her legs felt rubbery. If Rollo/Kalandar even noticed the hit, he did not remark regarding it as he stared intently at Thistle. “What do you want!?” she shouted as she stood unsteadily, one hand braced against the wall she’s just used as a stop-brake.

“Have the gods not imparted wisdom into these useless shells?” He shook Thistle as he asked. “The rings, your lives…it appears self-evident, from my point of view. I would think the same from where you are, but who knows? I once watched a lowly vampire take on the highest order of demon. Hmm, poor example, as he ended up victorious. Never mind.”

Maddie thought the demon was relatively civil for what he was, but she didn’t think there was going to be any way to negotiate their way out of this. Sam reared back and delivered another hit with the chair, yelling as she did so. Kalandar turned slowly, so he was facing her. With his free hand, he grabbed the chair from her; Sam’s feet left the ground before she wisely let go of her impromptu weapon.

“Hmm, so much power and yet so ignorant.” The rings glowed brightly just as he flicked his fingers, smashing into Sam’s face and sending her sprawling, blood erupting from her nose.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Maddie shouted, finally letting go of her wall-crutch. “Feel good, hitting a little woman?”

“I would gladly take on anything my size if you would oblige, and yes, it was surprisingly satisfying to strike her.” The corners of his mouth pulled up. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have some business to take care of.” Thistle choked and coughed as he applied more pressure.

Maddie was confused by the next sound she heard; she didn’t think the caving in of one’s chest would be quite so deafening. Kalandar roared as blood flowed down the side of his head. Sandra was standing to his side, a smoking gun pointed at him. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Maddie asked quietly, touching the gun in her pocket.

“How dare you hit my little girl,” Sandra said evenly.

Maddie couldn’t remember a time when she’d been happy to see Sandra; that had abruptly changed just now. The cynic in her wasn’t sure if it was motherly instinct that drove the woman to say what she had, or rather the justification for shooting Kalandar.

“Put the girl down.” Sandra’s muzzle was unwavering.

Kalandar rubbed furiously at where the bullet had entered. “That hurt!” he roared.

“Like I said, put the girl down or there’s more.” Without taking the gun off Kalandar, she went over to Sam. “Are you all right, honey?”

“Honey?” Maddie mumbled. She thought the woman might be laying it on a little thick, unless traveling through the portal had somehow realigned her misaligned wiring.

Blood gushed from Sam’s nose, but she stood, a burning defiance blazing in her eyes.

“Can anyone tell me what is going on and what the big ugly red man is doing?” Sandra was all business.

“Worlds, as in plural, are ending, and this shithead is here to facilitate,” Maddie replied. “That about right?”

“More or less, although I am always interested in furthering my own personal cause as opposed to that of others.”

“And the Bleed’s cause?” Sam sniffed.

“It causes great suffering and destruction; that is within my sphere of enjoyment.” He had yet to put Thistle down.

“The girl he holds, is she important?” Sandra asked.

“She is, Mom,” Sam told her. Sandra, without warning, shot him in the small of his back. He immediately fell to his knees with a grunt.

“Let her go or the next one is in whatever your kind calls balls.”

Thistle collapsed when Kalandar let her go. Maddie raced forward and dragged the limp girl away.

“God-tech?” she whispered with breath she did not possess.

“Not so much,” Maddie replied. Guns were effective where and when she came from, but they were a weapon created by man, not gods. She wondered if perhaps the same could be said about the rings. From her perspective, they were so far advanced as to be driven by magic, but by the beings that made them, the whole of the clockwork capabilities may be considered not much above a slingshot and a wooden tree blind.

“I will thank you to stop shooting me, Human. While it is painful, you cannot kill me, not with that rudimentary weapon.”

“And I should believe you, why?”

“I am a demon, not a liar.”

“An ethical demon? Is there such a thing?” Sandra wanted to know.

As much as Maddie wanted to ask Sandra the same question, she refrained. Even her sarcasm had a limit to when it was wise to present.

“I’m okay,” Thistle said to Maddie’s careful ministrations. “We need to kill it.”

“Any ideas?” Maddie asked.

“I’m right here.” Kalandar stood. There was an echoing clink as two chunks of metal fell to the floor. “The question now becomes, do I destroy everything or just you four and keep the rings for myself. So much power here. It would be a shame to let it go to waste.” Kalandar was looking at the rings, he stretched out a hand; a flow of visible energy flared from his fingertips and almost gently caressed the curve of the closest arc.

Maddie moved closer to the control panel, as the monster was clearly more interested in the machine than the people.

“You could help us,” Sam said. Maddie thought that might be the most insane thing anyone had ever said, given the scene before them. She quickly changed her mind to perhaps it was the most genius thing, as Sam was on the opposite side from where she stood and was just crazy enough to be a distraction.

“That is not my mission.”

“Doesn’t sound like