The Harlequin   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

«The darkness covered him, hid him from sight, he gave a terrible cry,and when we could see again, he was dead.»

«How exactly, Requiem?» I asked.

«His throat had been torn out as if by some great beast.»

We had two lights between us and the consuming dark. «I smell wolf,» Micah said.

I shook my head. «The Mother of All Darkness doesn't do wolf, she does cats, lots of cats, no doggies.»

Nathaniel and Richard sniffed the air, too. «Wolf,» Richard said. Nathaniel nodded.

Edward called to me. «Can bullets hurt that thing?»

I shook my head.

«Let me know when you find something I can shoot.»

«We can shoot,» Claudia called.

The darkness was almost to the stage, but it didn't feel like her. It didn't feel like Marmee Noir. I closed down the warm fuzzy love flavor of the ardeur and reached out with my own power, my necromancy. I reached out not toward the coming dark, but toward the spot near the ceiling where it originated. Marmee Noir wasn't shy. If she'd been there, she'd have let us know. So what, or who, was it? Who held a piece of the dark inside them?

I searched the rafters near the high, vaulted ceiling. I almost heard a voice, almost a loud whisper, «Not here. Not here. I'm not here.» I actually started to look away, then realized what I was doing. Something was in the corner of the ceiling, someone was there.

The darkness curled along the edge of the stage and began to eat the bright lights that usually spotlit the pulpit. Columbine laughed, a high, joyous, cruel sound. «The darkness will eat you all.»

«You're not causing the darkness, Columbine, you or Giovanni,» I said.

«We are Harlequin,» she said.

«Tell your little friend hanging near the ceiling to show himself or herself.»

Her body went very still. It was better than any human facial expression. There was someone there, and she hadn't thought any of us would know. Great, now how did it help us?

The darkness was almost here. A darkness that smelled like damp night, and earth, and wolf, like something acrid on my tongue. It wasn't wolf as I knew it. But I was out of time to analyze it.

I yelled, «Edward, shoot into that corner there.» I pointed at the corner where I knew the vampire was hiding.

Edward and Olaf drew their guns, aimed. The darkness swirled toward us, toward Jean-Claude. I drew my gun and moved in front of him. Remus was beside me. «You're supposed to have bodyguards, remember?»

Haven came to my other side in a blur of movement. «Finally, something to shoot.»

«Not yet,» I said.