—blood and copper wire—

Tangled together they tumbled down the steps, an avalanche of flailing limbs and shouts that bounced over the last step and crashed through the slouching banisters to thud onto the dusty wooden floor.

. . . she closes the book and sets it back on the nearest shelf.

The shelf lowers slightly with an audible click and a section of the wall shifts open to reveal a sloped stone passage. Sloshing noises resonate up from below.

“Oh come on!” Lorelei shakes her head . . .

The manacles on Jason Magwier’s wrists and ankles rattled, his jaws ached from gripping the stained metal spike in his teeth and his shoulder had gone numb.

. . . the key to the manacles are in the front pocket of the nursemaid’s apron, my fingers find them easily . . .

The visions where coalescing now, becoming more uniform. That meant he had no time for reason or deceit. Akantha was next to him, she raised herself to her hands and knees and cocked her head to stare coolly at him. “I’ve had just about all I can take of you.”

. . . if not for that she might never have seen the frothing darkness bleeding out from under the shattered slabs of basalt . . . they zero in on Lorelei, smelling her heat through the putrid, ankle deep water . . . the parasites move as one, gushing forward . . .

Jason hopped up and straddled the nursemaid’s back, slipping his manacled arms over her head and around her throat. He pulled back with all his might. She was a good three inches taller than he was and when she stood it lifted him off his feet. The wrenching of his wounded shoulder was enough to elicit a sob from Jason. He nearly dropped the metal spike from his teeth. She swung him around, and smashed herself backward into the wall. The plaster shattered around him, sparks danced before his vision.
 
The nursemaid’s hands rose up to the rusted chain of the manacles and with a sudden and swift motion snapped it. Jason fell to the floor with a grunt. He had just enough time to spit the metal spike into his just-freed hands before Akantha rounded on him, her fingers hooked into talons.

He jabbed upwards, sinking the metal spike dead center into her chest. A small, startled whimper escaped the nursemaid’s lips. Blood and shreds of copper wire exuded from the wound, the metal of the spike scraped against something hard. Jason pushed again, not stopping until he heard a familiar small crack and felt the cool rain of ashes over his hands. 

—the nick of time, and other abrasions—

Ripples of dust and water washed over Lorelei as she danced around the collapsed bookcase, gesturing wildly with the middle finger from each of her “soft white hands.” She could not believe it; she had beaten Sandor Perth! The Sandor Perth. Dead or alive that was an accomplishment to rival anything her frigging mother had ever done. It flew in he face of everything her instructors said about her. Undisciplined? Without focus? Obstinate?

Maybe, but I won, I won when all they would have been able to do is roll over and die.

In the middle of a kick-step she doubled over, retching up the last remnants of the dead wizard’s wretched spell. If not for that she might never have seen the frothing darkness bleeding out from under the shattered slabs of basalt.

The soulwyrms flowed out of Sandor Perth’s pulped skull and broken limbs. They zeroed in on Lorelei, smelling her heat through the putrid, ankle deep water. Desperate for a new host, the parasites moved as one, gushing forward.

Lorelei turned and ran, slogging through the slimy water. Another menace, another retreat.  So much for my victory dance. She quickly found herself panting. The invocations had left her drained, she did not have enough left in her to obliterate an insect much less a horde of parasites.

They dogged her as she ran. The stomach-turning slithering they made sounded like mocking whispers at her back. She could almost hear Sandor Perth’s smug voice in that morass of sound. 

“Run girl. Run.”

Her wild flight led her back to where she had started, the foot of the booby-trapped stairway. The steps where still withdrawn, the door was still closed.

An obscene gurgling filled her ears and she turned to see the mass of parasites spilling over one another in their greed.

What will it feel like? she wondered in what she knew would be her last moments, to be so utterly consumed? 

The hidden door rumbled open, the steps clicked back into place. Jason Magwier’s shadow filled the top of the stairway. He was holding a torch of all things. He was shouting her name and holding the door open. 

Lorelei threw herself up the up the stone stairway, running on all fours. The soulwyrms boiled after her, slopping over the steps in a grimy wave. A few feet from the exit her hand slid across something sharp but she ignored it, forced herself to move faster.

Fifth step! Watch out for the fifth step!

She sprung over the last few steps into Magwier’s arms, her weight nearly driving him to his knees. She did not notice his wounds or the thick smoke filling the room. All she noticed in her exhaustion was that his torch was a flaming table leg. 

The sputtering torch kept the amorphous mass of parasites at bay. They oozed up around the edges of the hidden doorway like glistening moss but advanced no further.

“Lorelei,” Magwier whispered, “do you feel well enough to run?”

“I will never . . . drink tequila . . . again . . .”

“The fire is holding them at bay, but I don’t know for how long.”

She took in a deep shuddering breath, “I can run you and those things into the ground.”

“All right,” he straightened, pulling her to her feet as well. “Now when I say run—”

—stray thoughts—

It was still raining but at least they had the comfort of daylight. They huddled together on the side of the road watching Sandor Perth’s manor burn. Lorelei had slipped out of her shirt and used it to fashion a makeshift bandage for Magwier’s shoulder. That left her with just his jacket and her bra; the leather felt clammy against her bare skin. “How long before someone sees the smoke and sends the fire company?”

He shrugged, “Perhaps never. The residents of the town have a habit of ignoring strange goings-on.”

Coils of flame licked out of the broken windows to singe the smoldering gambrel roof. “Guess we’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

“I’m sorry Lorelei,” he frowned, his dark eyes churning, “I’m sorry for all of this.”

“You didn’t know.” she shot him a glance, “Did you?”

“Trust me, none of my clever plans ever involves stabbing and blood loss for myself or the ones I love.” Smoke billowed out of the arched doorway and rose slowly to the cloudy sky. “Next time you pick where we spend our vacation.”

A thousand brutal retorts occurred to her but she thought better of it. She just held him a little closer. “How about your apartment, your black and white TV and take out food?”

“Sounds heavenly—” he said, then his brow creased. He reached around to the back of her shoulder, “Hold still.”

“What’s—” she nearly screamed at the sight of the soulwyrm he had plucked off her. Leaping to her feet she shuddered with revulsion, running her hands over herself to see if there were any more. There were not, but she still felt soiled. She wanted to tear off her clothes and a layer of skin to be safe. “Oh Goddess! How many escaped? We have to—”

“It’s all right.” Magwier held the struggling parasite pinched between his thumb and index finger. It twisted and coiled in his grip, “It can’t do anything. Without its brothers it’s no more dangerous than an evil thought.”

Lorelei watched as Magwier squashed the parasite’s back half, it swelled like and overripe boil and burst audibly. “They taught us in the academy that Sandor Perth was a good man.”

The walls of Sandor Perth’s manor were beginning to weaken and bend. Smiling with grim satisfaction Jason Magwier dropped the tiny carcass and stood. “He was once. I suppose there’s a moral there but I’m too damn tired and we’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

He offered Lorelei his hand and she took it. “That’s ok, I wouldn’t have been paying attention anyway.” 

“That’s my girl.” They limped back the way they had come.