Blood Vivicanti (9781941240113) by Becket Read Free Book Online Page A

distance.
    Hundreds of Sleeper Devils
were flattened completely with that first onslaught. But there were
hundreds more still coming.
    They climbed all over him
and tried to take him apart with their rotting hands.
    Dust and rust clouded
everywhere in the tumult.
    Steam balanced himself on
his waist. Then he raised both fists in the air and slammed them
down with all his power.
    The ground fissured like a
fault line beneath his strength. It weakened the structure under
the Locomotive Deadyards. The ground cracked and crumbled away. A
great chasm opened. The bottom was very far down. I could only see
darkness.
    Many Sleeper Devils fell
into the chasm, some looking helpless and scared, some glad that
death was finally coming. They tumbled into darkness and
disappeared.
     
     
     
     
    The ground fissured all the
way up to Lowen and stopped at his feet. He, Nell, and his
Devicanti did not fall into the chasm.
    But the Locomotive
Deadyards was collapsing inward like some tumbledown house of
cards.
    My grip shook free from the
rafters and I fell. Red leaped after me. And he almost caught me
midair.
    But I fell headfirst on a
boxcar. My neck snapped and my body flipped over and away until I
crumpled on the ground like some graceless bird.
    My body healed itself and I
sat up shakily, rubbing my dizzy head.
    I looked for Red, but I did
not see him.
    Lowen suddenly stood before
me. He had moved faster than Theo ever did, catching me completely
off guard.
    He gripped my throat and
lifted me closer to his face.
    It felt good to be that
close to Theo again. The scent was still the same. But it wasn’t
him. And I was beginning to accept that he was indeed gone
forever.
    Lowen then flung me across
the Labyrinth Fort.
    As I flew through the air,
I caught a glimpse of Red.
    He had landed and had been
immediately ganged up by about twenty Devicanti. He was beautiful
to watch as he fought them all, grabbing them and tossing them and
breaking them – reminiscent of Rudolph Nureyev the famous Russian
ballet dancer on the Muppet Show.
     
     
     
     
    I stopped flying through
the air when I crashed headlong into an old passenger
railcar.
    Lowen came after me again,
leaping through the air. He landed on top of me.
    He grabbed me by both
shoulders. He drew my neck closer to his mouth. His Probiscus
extended from the tip of his tongue.
    “ No venom,” I said to
him.
    But he paused right before
he pierced me, to look into my eyes.
    “ Don’t numb my pain with
your venom,” I said.
    “ No pleasure?” he asked with
an evil grin. “No problem.”
    Then he thrust his tongue
into my throat and drank my blood and ate my Blood
Memories.
    I had wanted Theo’s tongue
inside me, but not like that.
     
     
     
     
    Lowen’s eyes had been
closed as he drank my blood. But then he opened them wide with fear
and realization.
    “ Oh my G—” he started to say
but choked on blood and words.
    He released me and I fell
to my feet.
    Lowen fell to his knees,
groping at some pain in his throat. He was choking and gasping for
air.
    “ What have you done to me?”
he demanded through his pained breath.
    I stepped closer to him.
“I’ve given back to you what you’ve given to others,” I said. “I
have fed you with a dose of your own emptiness.”
    And I had, too. I had
filled him with all the Blood Memories that Nell had given me. I
had fed him all the memories of all the years of misery and torture
that he gave to Nell. I had fed him with his own black
medicine.
     
     
     
     
    Lowen coughed out blood and
tried crawling away from me.
    “ You sent Nell to me and I
drank from her,” I said to him. “Her blood changed me. Her Blood
Memories were of the greatest emptiness and pain. And they were a
twisted reflection of my life. Drinking Nell’s blood shared with me
her experience in loneliness, her strength throughout the solitude,
and the hope that someone else would share their experience and
strength in the empty misery of loneliness. Her Blood