Fan Fiction ❯ The Vampire Hunter II: Bloodlines ❯ Chapter 21

Chapter XXI

They entered the ninth hour cautiously. Clark had her sword drawn, and all of Gabrielle's claws were extended several inches. But instead of another room full of crazed vampires, they found a mostly empty room with two pools set in the middle of it.

Once she was satisfied there was no immediate danger, Clark put her sword away and walked to the pools. One was filled with clear water, while the other appeared to be filled with blood. Clark was about to dip her hand into the water to test it when Gabrielle stopped her.

"Wait. It doesn't smell right," Gabrielle declared.

She moved closer and took a strong whiff of the water and then the blood. She shook her head.

"It's been poisoned," Gabrielle announced.

Even as Gabrielle said the words, Clark caught a glimpse of white just under the surface of dark red blood and realized it was a leg, bloated and misshapen, floating in the liquid.

"That's really disgusting," Clark commented.

Gabrielle walked around the room, looking for possible exits, or at least a clue as to what their challenge was. Though she seemed to be able to figure out what trial Cynthia was using after the fact, she just couldn't remember what the different challenges were without some kind of hint.

"Find anything?" Clark asked, as she walked up behind the contemplative vampire.

Gabrielle shook her head.

"Nothing," Gabrielle replied dejectedly. "I was never very interested in my father's worshippers and their little myths. Now, I wish I'd paid more attention."

Clark snorted.

"You couldn't have known one of your psychotically insane siblings would decide to re-enact all of this some day. Give yourself a break."

Gabrielle smiled a little in appreciation and went back to studying the room. The two pools were a bit of a mystery to her. She couldn't remember any Gates that had two pools in them. But maybe Cynthia had added the one with blood to accommodate Gabrielle. If that was the case, then they were probably supposed to be the waters of Nun. Gabrielle recalled that in one depiction, the souls of the drowned swam in the water to be rejuvenated. Even Re himself was in the water at one point.

But just like the Lake of Fire, the water was only for the blessed dead. Though Cynthia had been rather charitable by giving Clark and Gabrielle clean water and blood in the sixth Gate, it was apparent that her generosity ended there. They were now considered unworthy.

Gabrielle tried to remember the rest of the text from the Book of Gates, which was where she was sure she remembered seeing the drowning victims in the water. There'd been something about the 'Fiery One,' a serpent. The serpent had been called by Horus to set ablaze his enemies, who had been condemned for atrocities committed against his father Osiris.

Gabrielle looked around the room and found the image of a serpent carved into the stone above where the door would be opening in less than an hour.

"Clark? Could you come over here?" Gabrielle requested.

Clark walked over to her.

"What did you find?"

"I'm not sure. Could you lift me up?" Gabrielle replied.

Gabrielle turned around to face the wall, and Clark placed her hands on Gabrielle's waist. Clark picked her up, and Gabrielle braced herself against the wall. As Clark held her up, Gabrielle felt around the serpent's mouth and found a hidden door. She scraped around the edge and then pried the lid open with her fingernails. It came up, and Gabrielle saw the nozzle of a flamethrower only inches in front of her face.

Startled, Gabrielle pushed away from the wall, and she and Clark fell in a tumbled mass to the floor.

"Whoa!" Clark cried out and prepared for an attack, as she got to her feet and drew her sword. "What the hell was that about?!"

Gabrielle moved a little slower and dusted herself off.

"Sorry. I was just caught a little off guard," Gabrielle said sheepishly. She pointed back up at the serpent's mouth. "There's a flamethrower up there. Vamps and fire don't mix."

Clark put her sword away and heaved a sigh of relief. She really wasn't in the mood for another battle so soon. Clark looked where Gabrielle had indicated and saw the spout of the flamethrower pointed directly towards where the entrance to the tunnel would be when the door opened. The entire area would be flooded with fire if it was powerful enough, which Clark had every reason to believe it would be.

Clark shrugged her shoulders. This was fixable.

"Your turn," Clark motioned towards the wall. "Lift me up there."

Gabrielle did as she was told, and Clark found herself at eye level with the destructive weapon. She'd never had one pointed in her face, or even used against her in any way. It was a little unsettling. However, she had a job to do.

Clark gingerly reached for the metal nozzle, prepared to jump as far away as possible in case the thing was booby-trapped. But nothing happened when she touched it, so she quickly set to work trying to twist and bend the metal upwards. If she could aim it high enough, it wouldn't block the entrance when it finally went off, and they'd have no problem getting through to the next challenge.

Finally, Clark had the end pointing towards the ceiling.

"Okay, you can put me down now," Clark instructed.

Gabrielle slowly lowered her to the ground. She looked up to check out Clark's handiwork.

"Nice job. I hope that was it."

"Hey, don't jinx it," Clark warned.

"Sorry," Gabrielle grinned, which was what Clark had been trying for in the first place.

Clark checked the timer near the door and saw they still had over forty minutes left before the door was supposed to open.

"You know, you still haven't told me about the other challenges you went through," Clark said, obviously hoping to get the details now that they appeared to have some time on their hands.

Gabrielle motioned to the floor, and they each took a seat near one of the side walls.

"Well, my first challenge wasn't anything to do with the old texts. Cynthia had me chained to a wall while she tried to talk me out of helping the human race." Gabrielle stared at Clark a little more intently. "She also brought it to my attention that you've been using me to collect information about the Higher Order lairs."

Clark glanced at Gabrielle's neck and finally noticed the silver locket was missing. She looked away guiltily, but she refused to apologize.

"I needed to know what you were doing. When I found the Gathering Place, I realized there was a lot more going on than I'd thought. So, I did what I had to," Clark defended herself. "If you'd trusted me..."

"I did trust you. I'm not the one that put a bug in my girlfriend's jewelry," Gabrielle said angrily and then paused, as she realized what she'd said.

Clark's mouth opened and closed. She swallowed.

"Did you just say... you're my girlfriend?" Clark asked quietly, not quite hiding the warm grin on her lips.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes slightly, but then she nodded as a small smile graced her own face.

"That's... I kind of like that. I've never had a girlfriend before," Clark admitted.

Gabrielle frowned.

"Not even when you were younger?"

"No. I was into school. I didn't have time to date. My one concession was martial arts, but that was really just to make my parents feel better. They were always worried that I wasn't socializing enough."

"Oh," Gabrielle said, a little subdued at the mention of Clark's parents. Then she shook her head. "Wait, don't change the subject. You lied to me."

"No. I didn't. But I did deceive you and for that, I'm sorry. But I have a duty to protect the human race against vampires. Just because I'm in love with their Queen doesn't mean I can stop doing my job."

Gabrielle knew Clark was right. She'd created the VHA herself for just that purpose, which was why she wasn't nearly as angry at Clark as she probably had a right to be. But she couldn't continue their relationship if she was forever questioning Clark's true intent.

"I want your word you'll never intentionally deceive me like that again," Gabrielle requested.

"Only if you promise you won't withhold information from me," Clark countered.

Gabrielle thought it over. The truth was that Clark already knew practically everything Gabrielle had been attempting to keep from her. And Gabrielle had intended to talk to her about those things anyway. She nodded.

"All right. I promise."

"Then you have my word," Clark agreed.

With that settled, the conversation waned for several minutes, until Clark remembered what had started the whole thing.

"So, you said something about Cynthia chaining you to a wall?" Clark prompted.

Gabrielle came out of her thoughts and quickly picked up where she'd left off. She told the story of how she'd tried to find some way out of her restraints, until she'd finally had to cut off her hands and feet. She tried to gloss over how much it had hurt, but Clark could see the remembered pain in her eyes. Then Clark had a thought.

"Why didn't you just use your telekinesis to bend the spikes back out of the way?"

Gabrielle went completely still, and then she groaned.

"I could have gone the rest of my life without hearing you say that," Gabrielle said unhappily.

Clark winced.

"Sorry."

"Next time, you get the spike cuffs, and I'll lie half-dead somewhere waiting for you to rescue me."

"No. No next time," Clark said seriously.

"Not if I can help it," Gabrielle agreed. "Anyway, once I was out of the manacles, I fought several crocodiles, which was the real first challenge, and then entered the second Gate. I had to swim for nearly the whole hour and then..."

As Gabrielle continued to describe each challenge she'd gone through, Clark's respect and admiration for her strength of will increased. She'd thought Gabrielle's declaration of being willing to do anything for her had been mostly romantic sentiment, but she knew Gabrielle could have tried to leave the Amduat at any time. And it was quite possible that she would have been able to find a way out if she hadn't been worried about meeting the deadlines to get through the next Gate. Instead, she'd gone on, knowing that each challenge could potentially be her last for the simple reason that she knew Clark needed her.

Clark reached out her hand and grasped Gabrielle's. Gabrielle looked at her a little strangely, but she continued telling her tale until she came to the part where she'd finally found Clark.

"So, all of this is from those ancient texts?" Clark asked.

"Yes. She's pulling from them at random, though. But they're in the right sequence, as far as I can tell."

"Is there a pattern to how she's choosing them?"

"I don't think so. The first one was from the Book of Caves. The second one was a combination of the Book of Amduat and the Book of Gates. The third one continued with the Book of Gates, and then all of them except the last one was from the Book of Amduat," Gabrielle explained.

"What was the last one from?"

"The Book of Gates. At the time, it didn't make sense, but now I remember there was a drawing of a row of sarcophagi and mummies being resurrected from them. I think that's what those vampires were supposed to be. And if that's the Fiery One, then this is from the Book of Gates, too."

Clark shook her head.

"Do you remember what the challenges were from the ones she didn't choose?"

Gabrielle tried to think.

"I know there were things like parceling land to the dead, and feeding and clothing the dead. There were speeches by the other gods and a lot of battles with Apophis where he was constantly being defeated in order to keep him from interfering with my father's journey through the night."

"But none of those would work in this case. They're not life-threatening, and if you fought her now, the game would be over too soon," Clark mused.

"Right. So, she's choosing the deadliest version of each hour," Gabrielle concluded.

"I don't suppose you know what the tenth Gate is about?" Clark inquired.

"All I can remember is that the last three hours were the most difficult because the sun was so close to rising again, and the forces of evil were against allowing that to happen."

"Great," Clark said without enthusiasm.

"And in the last hour, we'll probably meet up with Apophis herself."

"That's the one challenge I'm looking forward to."

Just as Gabrielle was about to respond, they heard the now very familiar grinding sound, and they both turned to watch the door rise.

"Come on. Time to go," Clark said, as she got to her feet and held out her hand to help Gabrielle up.

"Oh, joy," Gabrielle muttered.

They walked toward the entrance. Just as they were within a couple meters, a burst of flame shot out of the mouth of the engraved serpent. But instead of hitting the floor and blocking the entrance, it only scorched the ceiling. Clark grinned, and Gabrielle breathed a short sigh of relief.

They headed into the next Gate.