Page 54 of Dark Stars
They rode the four wheelers closer to thesite, and then it was simply a matter of breaking the altar like hehad with all the rest. Thankfully, hopped up on the energy of hisfallen siblings, the potent blood they had consumed before facinghim, this breaking was as easy as the previous two. "I need tocannibalize my relatives more often."
"What a statement," Alejo said dryly. "Ifeel that was a joke, but I can't quite tell."
Bobby laughed. "Definitely a joke. Withoutyou here to bring me back from the ledge, it would be far too easyto get drunk on the power, just like I did before surrendering allmy own tribute to my mother. That's how you turn into my relatives,who see all of existence, all of time and space through to the endof eternity itself, as ants. I never want to turn into that, thoughforever is a long time, and anything is possible."
"Well, not on my watch," Alejo said,throwing arms around his neck and kissing him thoroughly beforethey parted to get back on their four wheelers. "So next up is oneand two. Almost done."
"Almost done," Bobby echoed. What waited forthem at thirteen, he didn't know, but he did know he wasn't goingto like it.
Entirely too many of his relatives weremixed up in this, and it was never a good thing when one wasinvolved, nevermind the what, three?
Azathoth, Primordial Demiurge and Lord ofAll.
The Unnamed Darkness, offspring ofAzathoth
Shub-Niggurath, the Goat with a ThousandYoung, offspring of the Unnamed Darkness.
Father, son, daughter, more or less.
And of course Shub-Niggurath's Dark Youngdoing all the go-between and grunt work for them, managing thehumans and maintaining the altars. Their awful, tar-and-nightmaresflavor still lingered, not in his mouth but in his mind, realenough it may as well still be coating his tongue. For all hisjokes, he never wanted to eat the vile things ever again. "Weshould do smores when this is over."
"Sounds delicious. With Mexican style cocoa,because it's the best."
"Perfect. Maybe we'll just turn it into awhole thing, invite Harold and Jones, whoever all else." Bobbyfrowned. "That reminds me: We still need to deal with your ex."
Alejo scoffed. "Just take all his belongingsaway and drop him in a random country. Without his wallet, phone,and passport, he won't be troubling anyone for a long fuckingtime."
"Hmmm… that idea has merit. I will ponder."He fired up his four wheeler. "For now, let's get this done. Threemore and then we face high noon."
"Ugh, not looking forward to high noon.Maybe we should call in backup for the final boss."
"Just might."
When they reached two o'clock, though, itwas to find it completely abandoned. Though he pushed hard tosearch every nook and cranny of the site and the shadows, there wasnothing but the altar in want of breaking.
The same proved to be true at the next twosites, leaving just one. "They gave up and withdrew," Bobby said,munching down a couple of protein bars. "Only thing that makessense. They hadn't stopped any of the previous ones with even theirbest efforts, so why keep wasting resources instead ofconcentrating them for a final showdown?"
"So they recalled all remaining forces andare gathering at the final site. Gonna kill us there, once and forall, and then start fresh elsewhere or after the dust settles. It'swhat I'd do in their place," Alejo said.
Bobby grunted and pulled out his phone. WhenJones answered, he said, "Come to our location."
Minutes later Jones and Harold were there,one of them with notable, still-healing bitemarks on histhroat.
"Are we interrupting something?" Bobby askedwith a smirk.
"I will hex you," Harold retorted. "Do youwant our help or not? What's going on?" He sat down on a fallentree that had wound up propped against something else on the waydown and now lay at the perfect height for jumping up slightly tosit. Jones stood nearby, leaning against the same tree. He couldonly be described as looking well-fed at the moment, so yeah,they'd interrupted something.
Boy he couldn't wait for this to be over.After years of watching them dance around each other, he was goingto harass them fordaysand enjoy every second.
He sat eating more protein bars as Alejolaid out the past many hours of work and the unknown butundoubtedly ugly showdown that was awaiting them.
"Let me go scout it out," Jones said. Hewasn't wearing his usual sheriff uniform, only jeans, a blacktanktop, and an unbuttoned blue and green plaid flannel over it. Sohe'd been at home, off duty. He still had a gun, and probably hisbadge somewhere, but otherwise he looked like he'd been drinking abeer and grilling steaks. Though he liked his steak rare and namedHarold.
"Is that safe?" Alejo asked. "They'll be onalert, and at a wider range than we've dealt with so far."
Jones scoffed. "They're expecting primordialdark and/or witches. They are not expecting plain old boringmonsters like me. I'm one of the most well-known monsters in humanhistory, but on the grand stage of all things scary, I'm usuallylost in the cracks. Be back in a little while."
"I'm gonna go call my mom, much as I don'twant to, and let her know at least some of what is going on. Aheavily abbreviated version. Otherwise she'll call me from a carrental place at the damned airport." Heaving a sigh, he pulled outhis phone and wandered off.
