The fire seemed to drive the huge creature mad with pain. Roaring, it stumbled forward and grabbed the only thing in its path—Mistress Crueltongue.
“No, you fool! Put me down! Put me down!” she shrieked at the three-headed thing.
But the flaming claws only squeezed her tighter. And then, as Lexi watched in horror, the middle head leaned down and its gaping maw enclosed Mistress Crueltongue’s entire head.
For a moment, Lexi could still hear the other woman screaming—though her voice was muffled since it was coming from inside the drooling black hole of a mouth. Then, with a snarling, crunching sound, Karnivore Two bit its Mistress’s head clean off her neck. Blood spurted everywhere, jetting straight up to the ceiling, and the screaming stopped abruptly.
Still maddened by pain, the flaming monster blundered around Lexi’s bedroom. She did her best to keep out of its sight—if it could even see any more—and was relieved when it didn’t seem to notice her crouching behind the bed. Finally, it blundered towards the door and fell, twitching as the flames completely consumed it.
But now Lexi had another problem. The enormous carcass of Karnivore Two was blocking her doorway and the flames were catching, licking across the carpet and up the walls. She needed to get out but the doorway was totally blocked by its enormous, burning bulk.
There was a window over her bed, but it was a long, narrow horizontal slit, which had been the fashion when the house was built. There was no way she was getting out of that, Lexi thought, as she pulled a fold of the bedcover over her mouth and nose, to avoid breathing the choking smoke that was rising all around her.
How had this happened so quickly? Barely two or three minutes before she’d heard a scratching at the closet door and now her entire house was burning down and she was trapped inside! Was it her fate to be burned alive with the corpses of her nemesis and her monster? Was she really going to die this way?
Oh please! she prayed, though she hardly knew who she was praying to. Please, I don’t want to be burned alive. Please, somebody help me!
“Courage, daughter—help is on the way!”
Lexi looked around, confused. Was she hearing things? Who was talking to her?
“I am the Mother of All Life—the Kindred Goddess whom all Kindred warriors worship. And I say to you now, that you will not die here. I have other plans for your life, daughter.”
Lexi wasn’t sure what to say but a peace filled her heart despite the flames. There was a presence surrounding her that came with the voice—a presence that flowed over her like calm, cooling water.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
She didn’t know how she would be saved or who would rescue her but she had hope now, though the flames were dancing higher and higher—hope that she might be saved.
But who would do the saving?
Lexi didn’t know.
THIRTY-NINE
“Angel!”
The deep, familiar voice make Lexi yank her head up.
The soothing presence was gone but standing in the doorway, which was blocked by the flaming bulk of the monster, she saw Bound. And right behind him was Gaze.
“What in the Seven Hells happened here? Are you all right?” the Light Twin called to Lexi.
“I won’t be if you can’t get to me!” Lexi shouted, over the growing roar of the fire. “My window’s too narrow and the door is blocked! There’s no other way out!”
The twins gave each other a look that seemed to speak volumes.
“Oh yes there is, Angel,” Bound growled.
And Gaze shouted,
“Stay where you are and don’t move—we’re going to get you out!”
Then, to Lexi’s dismay, both of them disappeared again.
“Wait—where are you going? I need to get out!” she cried. “I need to—” But her words ended in a choking gasp as the black, oily smoke that was coming off of Karnivore Two’s corpse billowed into her face.
Gasping and coughing, tears streaming from her eyes, Lexi pulled the bedspread over her mouth again. The fire was racing across the carpet, so she had to climb quickly up onto the sleeping platform, even though this put her closer to the smoke.
She huddled in the center of the mattress, covering her face and her body as well as she could. The smoke was everywhere now and the heat was intense. Any moment the bed covering would catch flame and then she would go up like a torch. She—
Suddenly there was a sound like ker-thunk! ker-thunk! ker-thunk! right over her head.
Looking up, Lexi saw that three sharp metal claws had been shot through her roof and were digging into the blood-spattered ceiling. There was a creaking, tearing, roaring sound and suddenly, the entire roof came free and she was looking up into the night sky where a familiar, sleek, silver ship was hovering.
The cables that had pulled off the roof were cut lose and the entire top of her house went crashing into the nearby field. Almost at the same time, a hatch in the side of the ship opened and a long rope ladder descended from it. Gaze was clinging to the bottom of the ladder and when he saw Lexi looking up at him, he reached down for her.