Part III: Family Matters
Chapter: Blood, tears and gold
Myers wasn't sure what he had expected to see, stepping into the penthouse suite, but it sure as Hell wasn't this.
In the middle of the luxurious room, stood a young, shirtless, stunningly handsome Mexican guy - and he was kissing Margot.
He had pulled her near, his hands gripping tight on the curves of her hips, his lips hungry on her mouth, the kiss passionate and raw. Margot, wearing a skimpy, golden dress, was clinging to him, her fingers deep in his wavy, black hair, her petite form pressed tight to his bare chest.
A rage, pure and burning like a white flame, shot through Myers' body. Without even thinking about it, he was pointing a gun at the man's head.
"Step away from her, or I'll blow your brains to the wall!" he shouted.
"¿Ay, que pasa?!" the guy broke the kiss, and in a heartbeat the annoyed look at his face changed into a shock as he noticed Myers' gun.
"I said, step back." Myers hissed. "That's my wife you're grabbing."
The guy went pale, and his hands were off Margot in a second.
"I'm sorry!" he stammered. "No sabía que-"
"Shut up, and get lost." that was Clay. "Out, now!"
He didn't need to say it twice. The man didn't even stop to pick up his T-shirt from the floor, as he rushed to the door. Myers didn't bother to turn and look as he left.
His eyes were on Margot now.
Slowly he lowered his gun, and hesitating, took a step closer. But something in her eyes made him stop where he stood.
She looked…. alien.
Her hair was a waterfall of fiery red curls, that reached her hips, her form was still slender but it was somehow more curvy, even more feminine, and her breasts had definitely grown a cup size or two. But that wasn't what made Myers' heart turn to a lump of ice cold steel. It was the way she looked at him.
Her emerald green eyes glimmered in the dim light of the room, and they narrowed when she saw him. She tilted her head, perplexed on the sight of their guns, as if they were nothing but a curious interruption to what she had been doing.
And from her eyes, Myers saw that she didn't recognize him.
"Margot, it's me." Myers said, his voice hoarse in his throat. "It's me, John. I've come to take you home."
"Home?" she asked, tilting her head. She said the word like she didn't know it, like it had no meaning to her.
Myers felt his heart breaking.
"Yes. Our home."
"I do not understand." her voice was alien, with a strange, exotic accent.
"It doesn't matter. Just… just take my hand, okay? Do you trust me?"
Myers forced himself to take a step closer.
"This wasn't the plan." said Clay on a low voice. "Where is the Goddess?"
His words made Margot's eyes snap from Myers to Clay, and then to a door on the other end of the room. Her eyes narrowed, and Myers knew that look all too well. She was sending a telepathic message.
"Shit!" Myers cursed, but it was too late. A flash of golden light filled the room, and Myers had to turn his eyes away. He felt a presence, a power that was unlike anything he had ever felt, like there was a thunderstorm in the room, the air pressure and the electricity making his head ache and the hair of his arms stand up.
He forced his eyes open, blinking a few times.
"I know you." a sweet, low, female voice said - a voice Myers recognized immediately.
Wincing, he opened his eyes.
In front of him, stood a being of gold and sparkle, too beautiful to even really look at.
She was Beatrix Connelly, and yet she wasn't. Just like Margot here was Margot, and yet not. There was something otherworldly about them both, that made it clear they were not human.
Gathering all his strength, Myers stood up and looked the Goddess in the eye.
"Yeah, I bet you know me." he breathed through his teeth. "I'm the guy whose wife you stole."
The Goddess made a laugh that sounded like silver bells, like strange birds in a wild jungle, like a wind on the waves, rain in the desert.
"Your wife?" she raised one of her perfect eyebrows. "That means nothing. She is my priestess now, and she will have everything she could ever want, riches and power beyond imagination. Is that not what you would wish for her?"
Myers glanced at Margot, who stood by the Goddess' side, still and silent like a living doll, her face without any emotion. He tasted iron, rage and fear on his lips.
"Only if that's what she wants." he rasped. "Have you bothered to asked her?"
"I do now understand your meaning." the Goddess replied. "But it matters not. I will not release my priestess, who brought me back to this world. She will serve me until eternity, and you must accept that truth."
While speaking, the Goddess had laid her hand in Myers cheek, her cool fingers feeling the line of his jaw, caressing his day old stubble. A soft laugh left her perfect, full lips, as her fingers traveled down, all the way to feel his collarbone. Myers gulped, feeling the electricity of her touch flashing through his spine. He felt like paralyzed, unable to move a muscle to resist.
"Get the Hell away from me." he forced the words off his lips. "There's only one woman in this room, who gets to touch me like that, and it isn't you."
"Oh, a feisty one?" the Goddess laughed. "I like you. I can see why you were picked out to be my first sacrifice. It will be a pleasure to take your life, to drink your blood and feel your strength in my immortal body."
She said it just like that, like it was an undeniable fact, and it left Myers no doubt. He would not leave this room alive. His only regret was, that he had brought his friends to die with him.
He glanced at Kaye, Abe and Clay, standing by his side, all three paralyzed on their feet. He didn't know weather they could see or hear what was happening, but it was clear that none of them could do anything about it.
But still, there were Kat and Red. If only they would-
Don't think about that! You can't let Margot pick that from your mind, or all is lost!
Forcing himself back to the moment, Myers turned his eyes back at the Goddess.
"Alright." he said. "You wanted to have my heart, then have it."
The Goddess broke into a smile, that lit up the room.
"Oh, now this gets interesting!" she said. "You would give yourself to me, of your own, free will? I can see the appeal in that. You must know, that a sacrifice given voluntarily, is worth much more than one taken by force."
"Yeah, I know, alright."
"Let me guess - the only thing you want in return, is the 'freedom' of your spouse?"
The Goddess walked to Margot, and laid a hand on her shoulder, making Margot turn to look at her. The blank look on Margot's face disappeared, and it was replaced by pure bliss. She looked at the Goddess, like a flower that turns to sun, embracing the light that gave it life.
The sight brought an acidic taste to Myers' lips.
"Yes. Release her. My life for hers."
He took a step forward, surprised that he could actually move. Slowly he raised his hands to his sides, offering himself to the Goddess.
"Diversion. A good one, to get the Goddess distracted." he heard Kat's voice in the back of her mind. "Something to give me a moment-"
Fuck! Don't go there, don't think about that! Stay focused, damn it!
A Diversion.
He kept his eyes fixed on Margot, on her sweet face, those eyes that had smiled every time she saw him, those lips that had said the words 'I love you', oh, so many times.
A diversion. But so what, if it works too well? So what if I die here now? I will gladly give my life for her.
"So, how is it gonna be?" he asked, his voice thick, and raspy in his throat. "Will you accept my offer?"
The Goddess turned her golden eyes to his, and they were like a deep well of secrets and power he knew nothing about.
"You fool." the Goddess said, her voice sad and cold as an obsidian knife. "Even freely given, your life is still worthless. You are just a man, and I can get any man I want to, and have their hearts and their blood at my will. But nothing could replace the priestess I have. She is one of a kind, and she will be mine till the end of this world."
A strange sense of calmness descended on Myers, following her words. His voice was cool and calm when he answered.
"No way in Hell will I accept that."
He took his gun, and pulled the trigger.
The sound of the gun ripped through the air, but the bullet disappeared - and turned into a small hummingbird. The green feathers of it's wings glimmered with the shades of gold and emerald, as it flew to the Goddess, and softly landed on her shoulder.
"I learnt from the mistake of my late priestess." The Goddess stated calmly. "Your bullets cannot hurt me. But I am offended, that you tried."
She turned her back at Myers, and walked to a large, canopy bed, and took a seat.
"Kill them." she said, turning her golden eyes to Margot. "Start with the beautiful one. I am hungry, and I want his heart."
Margot didn't reply, but with a wave of her hand, she threw them all to the wall.
Damn, her powers had gotten strong! Myers tried to fight, but he could not move a muscle.
"Margot, no!" he yelped. "Come on, don't do this! Don't listen to that- aaaagh!"
His sentence was interrupted by a violent spurge of burning pain that struck through his core.
Margot held him in her iron grasp, clenching her fist she glued his back to the wall. Myers felt the air leaving his lungs, as she squeezed them, and he couldn't speak anymore. From the corner of his eye he saw Abe, struggling to move, to breathe, and Kaye on his other side, desperately trying to reach for his gun, that too, was stuck to the wall, but outside of his grasp.
Inside the cage of his ribs, Myers felt Margot's mind, searching for his heart.
It felt like burning iron claws, digging into his flesh, and he couldn't help but to cry out, the excruciating pain cutting through his flesh.
"Aaaaaarggh…!" he groaned, panting now. He felt a few ribs breaking, with a sickening snap, and the pain shot through his mind like an arrow of fire.
"Agh! Margot, please…! Remember… me…!" he breathed through his teeth, staring Margot in the eye. "I... love… you!"
But this was not Margot. This was not the woman who had loved him, held him near to her naked body, in her arms, the woman who had given him purpose, who had saved his life, who had said 'I do' for sickness and health, for richer and poorer, till death do us part. This was not the Margot who had taken his hand to make out with him in the wedding, the Margot who had kissed him so, that he went weak in the knees, who had held his heart with her mind to bring him back from the dead.
There was nothing left of her, nothing but fire and flame, and Myers felt her burning claws in his heart now, clenching it tight, and he knew he would die. His heart raced, desperately, the pulse uneven, weakening - and darkness crept in the edges of his vision, he couldn't hear anymore, he was falling, falling-
And then, a bamf of blue smoke, a flash of something that moved too fast to see. A splash of blood, a sickening sound of flesh being torn apart - and Myers felt being released. Gasping for air he fell to the floor, to his knees, trying hard not to black out as his tortured heart tried to steady it's pace.
Kat, Christ! Finally!
"You alright, Myers?" he heard Hellboy's voice and felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Ungh… yeah." he managed. "Broke a rib or two."
He tried to force his eyes open, even if the world was still spinning. He noticed Kaye, Clay and Abe on the floor too, all gasping for air, but otherwise fine.
"Fuck! Red, help!" he heard Kat's voice through the haze.
On the bed the Goddess lay dead - a huge hole in her chest, revealing the fact her heart had been ripped out. Her head was twisted on an unnatural angle, her neck broken. Kat's arms were covered in blood up to her elbows.
But that wasn't the reason for the panic in her voice. She wasn't looking at the Goddess, but at something else, and Myers turned to see.
On the floor, a petite figure, her red hair forming a halo around her fragile body. She lay on her side, her arms and legs limp, her eyes lifelessly staring at the wall - and suddenly it hit Myers, through his foggy sight, through the pain of his body and his struggling heart.
Margot was dead.