[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.A pity, since the invaders of this realm numbered ten to one in favor of Hell-spawned demons.TheOtherworld was yielding up her population at a much less prodigious rate.Hell was coming to this little town of Sunnydale, and to the world.For some, the spell would stop them.But not for Belphegor. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlIt pushed against the membrane.It required just a little more strength, a small amount of power morethan it currently possessed.For want of just a little energy, it was still imprisoned in Hell.If it had the blood of a powerful being, it would be out: the blood of the Slayer would have beennecessary before, when the barriers were still fully formed.But now they were so thin that another mightbe made to take the Slayer s place.The blood of a master sorcerer might do.Or, if necessary, even thatof one with the potential to master the black arts.Fulcanelli s daughter was such a one.Still, the best would be a Slayer.Ah, yes, a Slayer.It couldn t help but laugh.For a Slayer stood on guard less than a quarter of a kilometer away. My dear, he whispered, can you hear me? In the crypt, Buffy froze.Her blood turned to ice in her veins.Belphegor was in Sunnydale.The banging on the door stopped.Panting, she took a step away. My dear? She breathed in, out, didn t know what to say.A hundred smart-ass remarks died on her lips.From thepart in her hair to her toenails, she was terrified. All will soon be lost, Slayer, and you will die, it said. But if you come to me willingly, I will bemerciful. That s what they always say, and then they pull the trapdoor lever, she said, fighting to stay calm. It is not a joking matter, Lord Belphegor insisted. There is no smile on the face of one who diesinagony. Yeah, well, I m not planning on dying any time soon. Mark it well, my dear, Belphegor told her. Thisday is your last. There was a terrible ripping noise far beyond the door.Maybe that was the sound of the demon lordripping free of the breach, and maybe some demon babe had caught her Morticia Addams dress on anail.And maybe it was the sound that the fissure made as it separated the floor beneath her feet, each half ofthe dirty concrete splitting apart to reveal sulfurous flames that shot up like party noisemakers and singed Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlBuffy s thighs. Hell is opening, Belphegor thundered. Welcomeus. Chapter12AS HIS FOLLOWERS WERE PICKED OFF BY THE FALSEGatekeeper, Giacomo Fulcanellismiled grimly and waited for just the right moment to end things.For all the power in that house, it wouldfall to him this very evening.Its exterior shifted even as he looked at it; a Victorian-style turret on theupper left face of the house simply disappeared, subsumed into the massive structure.On the lawn, several of his acolytes screamed.Fulcanelli raised his eyebrows.Rank amateurs,he thought.Their enemy was not the Gatekeeper.That much he had ascertained only moments after his arrival.He dtraveled the ghost roads, and made his trip even shorter by crossing over, just for a moment, into theOtherworld.He had never done that before, and there had been a chance that he might be trapped, butwith the barriers so thin, it was a chance he d been forced to take.After all, if he did not resolve this situation quickly, Lord Belphegor might not have any need of him.He couldn t allow that.Not when the battle was so nearly won.Fulcanelli was displeased with the way things had gone thus far.At every step, it seemed he had been betrayed.By the vampires, Spike and Drusilla, by his acolyteAlbert, by Claude and Lupo and so many others, and worst of all, by the girl he had raised as his owndaughter.The defeats had been far too frequent.He had failed to offer up the Slayer s life to Lord Belphegor.Thus, the barriers between Earth anddimensions that bordered it, specifically Hell and the Otherworld, in this case, remained intact.Belphegorwould have eaten his heart already, if not for the fact that Fulcanelli s constant efforts had thinned thebarriers significantly.The walls between Hell and the Otherworld and the ghost roads had, for all intents and purposes, fallen.Thus, the demons and monsters of those realms were using the ghost roads to try to gain access to Earthjust as their brothers were battering at the walls between worlds.It was chaos.It was beautiful.Belphegor would be pleased.Still, Fulcanelli had not kept up his end of the bargain.Without theSlayer s blood, his own life was forfeit if Belphegor should breach the veil between Hell and Earth.If thesorcerer didn t do something about it first.He had to find a way to make it up to his demonic master.Some way to prove his power, and his value. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlSunnydale had proven a more difficult battlefront than he d expected.With the treason of some of hismost trusted acolytes, the escape of the Slayer s mother, and the death of the Minotaur, Fulcanelli hadsought desperately for a way to please Belphegor.And now he d found it.Jean-Marc Regnier, the Gatekeeper, was dead.But somehow this boy Xander, a friend of the Slayer s,had been invested with the power of the Gatekeeper.The war in Sunnydale was under way, and wouldbe won or lost based upon factors that had nothing to do with whether or not Fulcanelli was present.The war in Boston, however, raged on.Somehow, this boy who had become the Gatekeeper hadmanaged, thus far, to hold together the house and to help hold back the creatures of the Otherworldtrying to break free.It was extraordinary, certainly.Fulcanelli smiled.It was dark now, and a fire burned on the front lawn that moments earlier had been one of his acolytes.It didn t matter.A black panther bounded out the front door and down the steps, past the burning man, and fled out intothe Boston night to prey on some unsuspecting civilian
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]