Disclaimer: Hey, guys, look! I'm making soup! Seth and El Ray are owned by Tarantino and Rodriguez. Sands is owned by Rodriguez. Blackheart is owned by Marvel Comics. Alex Tully is owned by Fox, although they don't seem to want him. I do own Xanny, Augusta and Marcos. And that's it.
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Twenty-Five: Intent
"Come out," Father Mateo said, gesturing. He motioned at the sky. "They won't come this far. Not yet."
Seth and Alex were hesitant, but Xanny was out of the car quickly, and she kept looking at the Titty Twister – granted, it was hard not to look at it – with a sort of longing that made Alex want to put her in a headlock again.
"So now there are two inside," Father Mateo said, assessing the situation.
"Where is Brother Malachi?" Xanny asked.
"He's close by," Father Mateo said. "He's moving from the foundation up. If we do not destroy these creatures at their root, they will just sprout up again."
"I thought Blackheart was the root," Alex said.
Father Mateo nodded. "When the moment is right, he will act. We must give time for the fire to burn." He looked at Xanny. "I am sorry about your friend."
"He's not lost," she said. "I put that crucifix on him that you gave me."
"Yes, but he is not prepared for Blackheart. Demons know our weaknesses, Alexandra. The only good you can do for Marcos is to pray for him."
"Pray?" Alex burst out, coming forward and stepping between Xanny and the priest. Obviously, he had reached his breaking point. "Pray? That's the best you can give us right now? We're under attack –"
"If I recall rightly, it was you who did the attacking," Father Mateo corrected smoothly, not ruffling a feather, and certainly not intimidated by Alex, who was a half-head taller than him and much wider in the shoulder, trying to stare him down.
"—and you haven't done anything but give us mountains of words that haven't done us any good!" Alex's voice was going higher, and even Seth was arching an eyebrow.
"Back down, man," Seth said, seeing Xanny's face going pale.
"If it was up to you we'd be sitting on our hands back in your run down little church!" Alex finished in a roar.
"Yes," Father Mateo said evenly. "And none of you would be lost inside the Titty Twister at this moment."
Alex stared at him. The touché was hard to counter. "At least we're doing something," he said.
"And you think I am not?" Father Mateo said. "The affairs of Hell cannot be disrupted by physical force. In situations like this, the war must be fought on a higher—"
Alex cut him off with a swiping of his arm through the air, a disgusted gesture that showed he wanted nothing else. He turned, storming around to the driver's side of his car again, and getting behind the wheel. He slammed the door shut, and the engine suddenly roared to life.
Xanny shot around the car and started to pound on the glass of the driver's side window. "What are you doing? Alex, don't be stupid, this is exactly what Blackheart wants!"
Alex cracked the window. "You said it was intention, too, right?" he said to her, a strange gleaming in his eyes. "Well, I don't intend to go inside the Titty Twister. I probably couldn't ram it all the way through anyway." He gunned the engine, sending sand squealing up into the air, making everyone back off from the car. Xanny threw up her hand to shield her eyes, and almost didn't hear the rest of his words. "I'll get him back, Xanny – I promise!"
The car didn't surge forward – it went backwards, and Alex turned around and headed for the more tightly compacted dirt of the road that led to the Titty Twister's doors. Seth, Xanny, and the priest could only watch as he got a good distance back, and then charged forward.
It was a Dodge Charger – a good racing car, but not much in the way of strength when it came to ramming things. Alex was going to destroy his car – Xanny realized this as he gained more and more speed, sending huge clouds of dirt streaming into his wake. He was a racer, and he was going to destroy the most precious thing a racer could own – his car – to get Marcos back. And the only reason he could possibly be doing this was for her – he'd even said as much. He was going to get back her Marcos, because she loved him.
And the only reason a man would do that for a woman was if he loved her.
She didn't know whether to laugh, scream or cry.
The car streaked like a dark-colored dart against the pale brown sand, and then it seemed to take off a few feet into the air. It sailed in a low arch, just high enough to aim the bumpers right at the middle of the door – and then Alex flew out of the car, rolling and hitting the ground in a painful-looking thump. One of the laws of physics kept him propelled toward the Titty Twister, so as the car smashed heavily into the doors – it was still two tons of steel, after all – he rolled almost into the small cluster of steps that led up to the entrance.
Xanny was running, even as the car hit, and bounced back. Seth was shouting her name, but she didn't care – Alex wasn't getting up, not yet, not fast enough. He had something in his hand and it was catching the light from one of the displaced headlights – the katana sword.
As soon as she reached him, he had her around the waist and was pulling her down, underneath him. One of the monsters from the roof had swooped down, ready to grasp her now that she was within reach, and Alex swiped the sword up, earning an angry cry from the beast as its leg was detached.
Xanny hit the ground underneath Alex on her back, and the wind was knocked from her. She tried to pull in air, but it was thick and stale around the Titty Twister, and it made her wretch. Alex had straddled her with his knees and was still beating back the creatures that were diving for her, going left and right. He didn't stand much of a chance.
And then, one of the creatures came down, saw something that was just out of her vision, shrieked in terror, and few away. Something arched after it, a line of water that glinted and sparkled in some light source that Xanny couldn't see – a spray of it caught the vampire on the wing and it went down, bursting into flame. It wasn't like the fire from the flame throwers – it was like the spark of a firecracker. The vampire more dissolved than exploded, and its ashes lay on the ground, where a dark foot came forward and scattered them to the wind, never to reform.
Alex saw and moved off her, just enough for her to get her head twisted around –
Father Mateo was there, holding a bottle of water in one hand, plastic and looking like it was capable of squirting a good distance. Seth was just behind the priest, carrying one of the crossbows. He was looking at the Titty Twister's doors.
"Not bad," Seth said.
Xanny managed to get into a sitting position, and both she and Alex saw the damage Alex's car had caused. The door was pushed open, the front corner of the Dodge Charger wedged into it. Alex moved to get up and Xanny instantly knew what he was going to do.
"We can't go in!" she shouted at him, adrenaline passing her from relief that he was alive to pure raging anger that he'd put himself in such foolish danger.
Seth looked like he wanted to jump out of his skin, and he stared at the door with wide, flashing eyes.
And then a head of white hair appeared in the opening. "Hi guys," Augusta said, cheerfully.
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"What a strange world you mortals live in," Blackheart was musing in his low, cold voice. It was like an arctic breeze across their ears, and Augusta felt that familiar pull again at her soul, that urge toward her baser instincts that she was trying even harder to fight. It was like walking up a very steep hill – utterly exhausting.
Marcos, however, had not been subjected to it. The pure seduction of that tone was enough to make him listen, and Augusta wanted to clap her hands over his ears. She knew it wouldn't work.
"Have you ever asked yourself," Blackheart said, addressing Marcos even as he seemed to float in a circle around them, "what your true love is?"
"Xanny," Marcos muttered.
Blackheart shook his head. "Try again."
Marcos tried to utter the name again. He tried…but he couldn't. Because Blackheart's voice seemed to be reaching inside his brain, and he could see things, things he knew were there, things he tried not to look at…
"Its all you've ever known how to do," Blackheart reminded him, and Marcos felt sick, thinking that this monster could somehow know about that very intimate and utterly humiliating conversation he'd had with Xanny mere hours ago.
"It's what I'm good at," Marcos said.
Augusta wanted to tell him not to argue, to just let it go, but also knew that wouldn't do any good.
"And Money is such a willing mistress," Blackheart said. "It brings so many things with it. Power, influence. Happiness. And don't give me the old cliché that money cannot buy happiness. You know the only time in your life you've ever been happy is when you see those zeroes pile up."
Marcos looked at Blackheart as if he'd struck him.
"You aren't alone," Blackheart said in that strange, comforting tone. "So many in the world worship at that altar. But death comes for us all, cutting us off from what we love most."
"You can't take it with you," Marcos whispered bitterly.
"It's a lie, Marcos," Augusta said, pushing past the buzzing in her head to speak. "It's a flaw, I have it too – the want for luxury, for everything to be easy. Nothing is ever enough, there's always something more. It's a weakness, not a love. You can't really love something that can never love you back."
Blackheart chuckled. It vibrated through the floor. "There's the lie, Marcos. Money can't run away from you. It can't abandon you for someone else. You can keep it under lock and key, keep it so close to you that you never have to worry about it straying. Wouldn't that be nice? To love something that cannot break your heart?"
A sound escaped from Marcos' throat. It was something like a whimper.
"This place," Blackheart said in a business-like tone, "could use you. It's run down, it's dilapidated. But you could build it up. The people flock here – they come by the droves. They bring their money, and they never leave. And yet more come, and more. It draws them, pulling them in, and they can't resist. How many more will come if you take control?"
"It needs a lot of work," Marcos said.
"It does," Blackheart replied. "But it will have everything. Everything you could ever imagine, and it will reap a harvest greater than anything you could imagine. And you would be forever young, forever able to reap that harvest, bathe in its benefits. And two beautiful women, the two most beautiful women in the world, will be here, always here, never to stray." Blackheart paused. "All you need to do is say yes. That's all."
Marcos looked to Augusta. She looked stricken. "Did he mention," she said, her voice very soft, "that to enjoy all of that – you'd have to be dead?"
"A mere formality," Blackheart said, but the words had already made Marcos frown.
"Dead?" he said.
She pointed up, toward the monsters in the rafters. "One of them. They were all probably like you, once. Human, at least. Handsome or beautiful, doesn't matter. And each one of them made a deal with this demon, and now look at them. Does that seem like the kind of business deal you want to make, Marcos?"
He looked up at the ceiling, repulsed. Blackheart glared at Augusta, but now she was smiling.
"It's like a magician's trick," she said. "Once you know how it works, it doesn't do anything for you anymore."
"Fine," Blackheart said dismissively. "Go back to your life, Marcos Ferarre. Xanny will leave you. You will grow old alone. You will serve your mistress anyway, and when your time comes, you will die, and you will lose everything. None if it will mean anything."
And as if to punctuate the point, there was a sudden heavy ramming right against the door, and the thick wood cracked like a lightning bolt. Marcos and Augusta leapt to their feet, and a headlight as bright as sunbeam shone into the interior of the bar.
It was a car. It had cracked open the front of the Titty Twister. And as if this sort of thing happened every day, Augusta walked right over to it, and looked out.
Xanny, Alex, Seth, and Father Mateo were on the other side. It looked as if they had just fended off some of the lesser vampire creatures. She felt a giddy sense of relief, and smiled at them. "Hi guys!" she called.
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Seth shot forward upon seeing Augusta, unable to stop himself. Xanny called his name, but it was as useless as when he'd called hers. Fortunately, he had his wits about him not to cross the threshold. Instead, he scrambled up onto the hood of the ruined car and extended his hand.
"Augusta," he said, "come out!"
She seemed to look behind her. Seth saw Marcos standing not ten feet away, looking at…
That was Blackheart? Seth realized he hadn't laid eyes on the personage yet. He looked so young, almost as young as Kate. And very Goth, with his dark hair, pale skin, and old-fashioned clothes.
Xanny was beside him, kneeling on the hood of the car, looking in through the crack. "Marcos!" she shouted upon seeing him. "Marcos, come on!"
But Marcos wasn't moving. Blackheart seemed to have hypnotized him, frozen him in place.
"Marcos!" Xanny roared even louder. He seemed to twitch, and then slowly, he turned his head.
Seth felt more than heard Xanny gasp. Marcos was staring at her with an empty, forlorn look. Seth knew that look. It was of such complete despair, such loss, that he felt for the man.
Then he turned his eyes to Augusta. He reached for her again, but didn't want put his hand through the maw the car had made in the entrance. Somehow he knew—
Xanny crawled forward. She was too close, and Seth grabbed her, pulling her back. "Don't go in there!" he barked at her.
"Look at Marcos!" Xanny whined. "Why isn't he moving? Gus, can't you get him!"
"No, Gus!" Seth called, as Augusta moved to do as her sister asked. "No, come out!"
Xanny looked up at Seth, outraged. She balled her hands into fists. "Don't you ever think about anyone other than yourself?" she screeched.
"Maybe if you thought of your sister for a single second—" Seth started to return, and then felt something grab him by the back of his coat and yank him off the car. Something else had grabbed Xanny, and she fell, too. It was Alex – he had taken advantage of their precarious balance, and dragged both of them back before they went in.
"Don't you two ever listen?" he chastised them. "Don't go into the Titty Twister."
There was a flash of black, and all three looked up to see that now Father Mateo was on the hood, the plastic water bottle in his hand. He turned to them and smiled, and then squirted the water onto the surface of the door.
A strange thing happened. It seemed that the doors began to melt. They dripped and oozed, but as the matter they had become hit the ground, it disappeared. In a few seconds, the doors were completely gone, and the scene inside the Titty Twister was very clear to see.
Blackheart, having observed this, turned and saw the priest, who was climbing down from the hood of the car to stand right at the threshold of the entrance. And it seemed as if the sky above them turned even blacker than before.