“Something wrong?” Alexa asked, though the look in her eyes suggested that she knew very well what the answer was.

  Leviathan struck quickly, seizing her in glowing tendrils of energy. The bonds held her arms, legs and throat. “You betrayed me,” he hissed.

  Alexa stared at him unafraid. “You want to kill them, don’t you? Think of it as a present from me to you… I’m bringing your worst enemies right to your door!”

  Leviathan frowned as the tendrils faded away, not by his command. “The powers I possess… you still hold the keys.”

  “Of course,” she answered as she rubbed at her neck, which was reddened by the tendril’s touch. “I’m no fool.”

  “The image that I saw – was that happening now?”

  “Give or take a few hours.”

  Leviathan sighed. Despite the energy that he could feel coursing through his veins, he knew that Alexa still didn’t take him seriously. He was a game to her, just as Meeks had been – something to entertain herself for a time as the march of time pressed onward.

  Looking around at the dozens of walking dead that awaited his command, Leviathan gave a nod of approval. When he spoke again, it was to his new army and not to Alexa. “Let them come. When my enemies arrive, you will strike them down! You will rip them limb from limb and feast upon their hearts!”

  The monsters moaned their agreement.

  “Are we to wait here and watch?” Alexa asked.

  “No,” Leviathan said with a shake of his head. “We’re going to one of my other bases – I have several here in the States. And then I’m going to take over the world.”

  Alexa laughed loudly. “How audacious! Do you have a plan for this or are you just going to start killing people until the rest bow down to you?”

  “When I was working my way through the ranks of The Illuminati, I came into possession of a book entitled Al-Azeed’s Guide to Grimoires and Scriptures. It’s an obscure work but much sought-after by occultists. While reading it, I came across a passage that described a set of even older books – The Blood Tomes12.”

  “Do go on,” Alexa said with interest. “For the first time, I think you actually have real promise.”

  Leviathan ignored the jibe. “There were six books in the series, all holding secrets relating to the relationship between this plane of reality, which it called The World of Mortals, and another, The World of Shadows, where many of the magical creatures from our myth reside. According to the old stories, these two Worlds were once a single plane – but they were forcibly separated long ago.” Leviathan cracked his knuckles as his enthusiasm began to build. “The exact nature of each book varied but all of them contained spells to travel to and from each World.”

  “Do you have these Tomes?”

  “I have one of them and that’s enough. I plan to make contact with the denizens of that place,” Leviathan answered. “If the powers of that World are half as strong as the Tomes suggest, then my army will be far greater than these walking corpses!”

  Alexa placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it approvingly. “World domination? I like it!”

  Chapter XII

  The Devil’s Challenge!

  The members of Assistance Unlimited were piled into a rented sedan, each of them being knocked about by the bumps in the road. Lazarus was at the wheel, Eun at his side. In the backseat were Morgan and Samantha.

  Though Leviathan’s vision had shown him that Lazarus and his followers were working with Thunder Jim Wade’s men, that was no longer the case. Upon returning to Thunder Island, the two groups had split up, with Assistance Unlimited picking up the Bachelor’s Grove trail while Wade led his men to another site entirely.

  Morgan glanced out of the window, noting that the sun was peeking through the clouds. It was just past dawn and the day was shaping up to be a cold and wet one.

  “I wish I’d been there,” Samantha said, catching his attention.

  “Where?”

  “When you saw Jakob.”

  “Oh.” Morgan adjusted his tie, feeling a twinge of jealousy. Though he’d tried to channel his feelings for Samantha into a more brotherly type of affection, he still got a bit bothered when she showed an obvious interest in another man. “He wasn’t very talkative.”

  “Still… Do you think he’ll ever come back to us?”

  “Honestly? No, I don’t. I think that bridge has been crossed.”

  Samantha leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “Sometimes I wish we still had access to that Die Glocke machine, so we could go back in time and fix the things that have gone wrong.”

  “That worked out really well for Miya,” Morgan murmured, then caught himself. He looked at Lazarus, hoping his employer hadn’t overheard. Since Miya Shimada’s disappearance, her name was rarely mentioned.

  The conversation in the backseat ceased when Lazarus quickly applied the brakes. For a moment, Morgan was afraid that he’d insulted Lazarus to the point where the man was going to confront the issue. But then he realized that the problem at hand was far more serious than that.

  Up ahead, Morgan could see the entrance to the cemetery – and the scores of reanimated corpses that were swaying to and fro amidst the tombstones. They seemed to be shuffling about, as if waiting for something… and Morgan had a deeply unsettling feeling that he knew what it was.

  It was Eun who voiced the suspicion. “They knew we were coming. How the hell did they know that?”

  Lazarus, ever the pragmatist, gave a cursory shrug of his shoulders. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll put them back in the grave and then worry about it.”

  Samantha leaned over the front seat. “Why go in there at all? Surely they’ve moved on. This is nothing but a trap!”

  “Are you suggesting we just leave these zombies out here, to do as they please? We have to put them down.”

  Samantha nodded, seeing the logic. Still, she wasn’t a fan of facing the undead, having grown tired of it after the team’s numerous battles against the undead Egyptian queen, Femi.

  The foursome stepped from the car, each checking their weapons. Morgan and Lazarus were armed with rifles, while Samantha and Eun held pistols in each hand.

  As soon as Lazarus was spotted by one of the zombies, it emitted a hoarse cry and raised a hand, pointing a skeletal finger in his direction. This served as a signal to the others of its kind and all began surging forward.

  “This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel,” Morgan muttered.

  The four heroes spread out and began taking aim. When their gunfire began to erupt, the zombies fell quickly beneath their sharp aim. The noise was so intense that none of them noticed that a second, smaller group of zombies moved out of the woods to their left. Left behind by Leviathan, this group hungrily approached, mouths open and claw-like hands extended.

  They reached Samantha first, one of them grabbing hold of her blouse and yanking it with tremendous strength. The fabric ripped, revealing her smooth shoulders and the upper swells of her breasts, which remained half-hidden by her brassiere. She screamed in surprise and the men whirled about, finally realizing the danger.

  Morgan blew the head off the zombie who held her torn blouse and Samantha found her inner strength quickly enough to deal killing blows to another two. She quickly reloaded, backing away to stand next to Morgan.

  Lazarus shouted above the din, “Morgan, Samantha – the two of you focus on the new arrivals! Eun – stay with me!”

  Eun nodded and followed Lazarus as he took the battle toward the cemetery. The young Korean recognized that Lazarus was trying to avoid having the group become surrounded. As one of the zombies drew within reach, Eun drove a hard punch into the creature’s midsection, knocking it back a few feet. He then fired directly between its eyes, ending its threat. Eun preferred physical combat if given the choice but with these undead enemies, it was quicker by far to use bullets.

  Lazarus was a blur of activity. He managed to reload even as he continued mowing down his enemies. Marching directly into the cemetery, he spun about, delivering one expertly placed bullet after another. None of the zombies required a second shot.

  Functioning almost like an automaton, Lazarus allowed his mind to wander. Though he hadn’t shared this with the others, he found this particular adventure to be of extreme importance.

  As Richard Winthrop, he’d been a party to murder, deception and ritualized abuse. Though he’d turned against The Illuminati and eventually undergone a rebirth as Lazarus Gray, he’d carry the scars of guilt for the rest of his new existence. As such, he’d made it a goal to eradicate all traces of The Illuminati – and Leviathan’s continued presence meant that he’d failed in that regard.

  As a zombie’s brain matter splattered against his face, Lazarus also realized that the continuing theme of rebirth continued to play a part in his life. The Darkling, Eidolon, Walther Lunt, Leviathan, Femi, even Lazarus himself… all of them had “died” and been “reborn,” sometimes more than once.

  Lazarus drove an elbow into the belly of an obese zombie who grabbed hold of his arm. Then he spun about and slammed the butt of his rifle into the creature’s nose. He pulled the trigger, blowing the head off another zombie who was now behind him.

  How long he continued to bring final death to these reanimated monsters, he had no idea. When he finally expended the last of his bullets, he tossed aside the rifle and drew a knife, using it to slice at the skulls and throats of those that he fought. His body was covered from head to toe with gore, so much so that he had to shake his head violently to fling the stuff from his eyes, allowing him to see.

  When he felt a strong grip on his arm, Lazarus growled and turned, prepared to stab another enemy. He came up short when he realized that it was Morgan, staring at him with wide eyes filled with concern.

  “Lazarus! It’s me! It’s me! Put the knife down!”

  Taking a deep breath, Lazarus stepped back. He looked around to see that his friends were the only ones left standing. A sea of corpses, a few of which were still twitching, surrounded them.

  “It’s over,” Morgan said, the words coming out in a hoarse rush.

  Lazarus noted that Samantha bore several bloody streaks across her cheek and for a moment, he feared that she was hurt – then he realized that the blood wasn’t her own. “I’m sorry,” he said to all three of them, looking chagrined. “I got lost in the moment.”

  “That’s putting it mildly,” Samantha responded. “You looked pretty scary out there.”

  Lazarus bent down and cleaned off his knife on the clothing of one of the zombies – a man whose suit had probably once been the nicest thing he had owned.

  “Everyone, look at this!” Eun had caught sight of Meeks’ black grave marker, with its still-glowing lettering. The others followed him over to it. “What do you make of it, Lazarus?”

  “I don’t know – but it was obviously a key component of whatever they did here.” Lazarus turned and looked back toward their car. Another vehicle was approaching, this one with the markings that identified it as belonging to the local Sheriff’s department. “I think the sounds of gunfire finally reached the outside world.”

  “Think our Sovereign City credentials will fly out here?” Morgan asked, keenly aware of how bizarre this scene must appear.

  Lazarus nodded. “I’ll handle it. You three open up the trunk and dip into the spare clothing we brought along.”

  As Assistance Unlimited followed their leader’s orders, Lazarus felt a surge of hope. Thunder Jim Wade and his men had followed another lead and if they struck oil with it… then perhaps this day would turn profitable after all.

  ***

  Leviathan and Alexa strode up to the front door of his Boston estate, a Colonial mansion that was surrounded by a massive stonewall fence and ornate metal gates.

  “You’re a wealthier man than I realized,” Alexa commented. “Houses this big, all over the world?”

  “Most of my bases are actually far smaller. I have apartments here and there. But yes, my personal wealth is impressive.”

  Alexa waited patiently as Leviathan fished out a set of keys from his pocket, finally settling on the correct one. He opened the door and stepped inside, coming to a halt that was so abrupt that Alexa almost bumped into him from behind.

  Thunder Jim Wade, flanked by Dirk and Red, were standing in the foyer, satisfied grins on their faces. Dirk and Red were both brandishing pistols but Wade stood there with arms crossed over his massive chest.

  “Welcome home, Mr. Mobius,” Wade said. “Feels good to turn the tables on you… you invade my home, I do the same to yours.”

  Leviathan’s mask seemed to ripple with emotion, as if it were a living part of him. “How did you find this place?”

  “We found a list of addresses back in Berlin, in your little box of note cards. Turned out some of them were registered in names that matched others in that same box. Lazarus figured that they might be other homes for you to hide in, like a rat.”

  “I own six properties in the United States alone,” Leviathan pointed out, sounding more than a little bit impressed with their ingenuity.

  “Yes but this one is the oldest – and the largest. Lazarus thought your ego would dictate the choice you made.” Wade added this last bit as a dig at his enemy. In fact, Lazarus felt certain that this location would be the most likely home for the villain’s occult artifacts, due to its location along a mystical ley line.

  Leviathan strode forward quickly, placing a hand on Wade’s chest. Both Dirk and Red pointed their weapons at the villain but neither pulled the trigger.

  “How clever,” Leviathan said. “But as we’ve seen, you three simply aren’t in my class.”

  “I’m immune to your hallucinogenic gasses,” Wade retorted. “Now that we know your tricks, we’ve taken precautions.”

  Leviathan laughed, a mocking sound that grew in volume until the walls seemed to shake and Red threw his hands up over his ears. “You can’t begin to fathom my ‘tricks,’ Mr. Wade!”

  Before Thunder Jim could answer, blue fire jumped from Leviathan’s hand and engulfed him. Wade screamed as pain raced through him. It was an unusual sort of agony, nothing like burns that he’d suffered in years past. This fire seemed to bypass his flesh and go straight for the organs underneath. It felt like he was being cooked from the inside out.

  Dirk opened fire, three bullets going straight into the side of Leviathan’s skull. The man went down in a pool of blood.

  Red snatched up an expensive carpet and threw it over his friend, using it in an attempt to pat out the flames. It had no effect and Wade’s screams seemed to reach a new pitch.

  Dirk grabbed hold of Alexa, squeezing her wrist painfully. “What did your boyfriend do to him?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?” the beautiful redhead said. Dirk turned, following her gaze. Leviathan, impossibly, was rising. As Dirk watched in amazement, all three of the bullets retreated from the madman’s skull, falling to the floor, as the wounds seemed to close up behind them.

  “To hell with this,” Dirk said. He dropped Alexa’s arm and raised his weapon, intending to try once more to end Leviathan’s life. As his finger closed on the trigger, however, the weapon exploded in his hand.

  Red stared in shock. Thunder Jim Wade was still writhing on the floor and now Dirk was on his knees, his hand smoking and bleeding.

  Standing up to his full height, Red holstered his weapon and dropped into a boxing stance. He’d just seen that guns weren’t enough to fell his opponent but he wasn’t going to turn tail and run.

  Bobbing and weaving, Red began peppering his foe with punches to the face. The first few sent Leviathan’s head jerking back but when the villain started to laugh, Red’s hope began to fade.

  “You boys are quite a riot,” Leviathan hissed. He backhanded Red so hard that the man’s neck nearly broke from the impact. As it was, Red hit the ground, blood pouring from his mouth, which was now full of shattered teeth. It hurt badly when he tried to move his head.

  Leviathan bent down and grabbed Red by the back of his hair, lifting him off the floor. “Any last words, American?”

  Alexa cleared her throat, drawing an angry glare from Leviathan.

  “What?” he demanded.

  “Your mystic fire has worn off.” Alexa pointed in the direction of Thunder Jim Wade. “Look.”

  Leviathan’s head whipped about, just in time to see Thunder Jim Wade’s fist whistling through the air. The blow clanged against the villain’s metal mask and sent him against the wall. Red slumped back to the ground and Wade stepped over his friend, intending to continue carrying the battle to his enemy.

  “I’m going to kill you,” Wade murmured. “Sometimes I like to leave my enemies alive so the justice system can have them… but I think that would be far too kind in your case.”

  Leviathan growled low, like an animal. He clenched both hands into fists and blocked the next punch from Wade. He pounded the hero’s midsection with his own blows but Wade would not be denied.

  Grabbing hold of Leviathan’s head, Wade repeatedly slammed it back into the wall, not stopping until blood and gore were dripping down its surface. Confident that Leviathan was dead, Wade tossed his corpse aside.

  Had Wade witnessed the failure of his friends’ bullets to end the villain’s life, he might not have been so confident. But during that time, he had been writhing on the floor in agony, so he was unaware of how powerful Anthony Mobius had become.

  Wade badly wanted to check on the status of his friends but he was very aware of Alexa’s continued presence. He moved closer, looming over her and lowering his voice. “Are you going to cause me any trouble?”

  Alexa’s eyes twinkled. “Not at all. But I’d seriously advise you to take your friends and run. Leviathan won’t be down for long.”

  Wade glanced over at the villain’s body, which was still and quiet on the floor. “You seriously think he’s about to get back up?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Thunder Jim Wade exhaled. He was bone weary and the only thing keeping him on his feet was sheer force of will. He knew that he couldn’t survive another bout with Leviathan.

 

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