Witch's Hunger. Deborah LeBlanc

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СКАЧАТЬ “We get ’em one at a time, bro. One at a time.”

      Cartesians were a nonentity to almost every human and many breeds from the netherworld on the planet. Reason being, Cartesians were rarely, if ever, seen. Nikoli didn’t understand the entire story about how his family had initially gotten involved with fighting them, but he did know the enemy. He’d seen them.

      Massive creatures. Some Cartesians stood eight to ten feet tall. Their bodies were covered with long thick scales like an armadillo’s, only a hundred times thicker, and those scales hid beneath a heavy mat of black and brown fur. Six-inch, razor-sharp claws served for fingers and every tooth in a Cartesian’s mouth was a lethally sharp, four-inch incisor.

      One didn’t simply stab a Cartesian in the heart or brain to kill it. In fact, Nikoli didn’t think any Bender knew for sure if they could be killed. To destroy a Cartesian, Benders had been taught to shock it back into another dimension. The farther the dimension, the better.

      Somehow Cartesians were able to cross over the wrinkles of time and space from one dimension to another through the smallest dimensional tear. And they traveled swiftly, always on the lookout for other netherworld creatures. Their purpose appeared to be total netherworld domination, no matter the kill. Vampire, werewolf, fae, leprechaun, djinn, anything and everything that did not make up the human race. A Cartesian killed any and all it found to absorb its victim’s power.

      The creatures had a leader, of that Nikoli was sure, but no one knew his name, not that it really mattered. It wasn’t like someone could Google him.

      What they needed to do was destroy him, by pushing him into the dimension of no return. The eleventh. Vanquish the head, the rest of the body dies. From all accounts, this so-called leader stood nearly twenty feet tall, but Nikoli would have to see that with his own eyes to believe it. All he had to worry about was destroying whatever Cartesians he found in his missions, hoping that luck or fate might hand him that leader one day.

      It wasn’t that Benders had any particular liking for vampires, werewolves and the like. But the secret society of Benders knew that if the Cartesians dominated the whole of the netherworld and became one sole power, that power would then take on the human race in order to achieve world domination. And with all that power wrapped up in an army of monstrous, furry armadillos with fangs and claws, world domination would be a cinch. Every Bender had sworn a solemn oath to do all in his power not to let that happen.

      Not letting on his thoughts to his cousins, Nikoli secretly worried about the mission that lay before them. It was hard enough to destroy a Cartesian, but even with their massive size, they were difficult to spot due to the speed with which they traveled between dimensional folds.

      Benders were trained to recognize a Cartesian’s proximity by scent. The creatures emitted a horrendous odor, a mixture of sulfur and cloves. And for some odd reason, on occasion, Nikoli had picked up a vibration that ran up his spine right before he caught a whiff of the odor. He thought it might come from the disturbance of a dimensional fold, right before a Cartesian made its way into their world.

      A Bender’s job was to push Cartesians back through the dimensional rift with a scabior, an odd-looking tool that for all intents and purposes looked like a child’s toy. It was an eight-inch-long metal rod with a marble-size bloodstone topping one end of its one-inch circumference.

      Harmless-looking, but if held in the right hand and used in the right manner by a Bender, the scabior let out such a strong current of electrical power that it refolded the dimension from which the Cartesian had entered, pushing him back inside. With each dimensional backward thrust, the scabior emitted a loud, sizzling pop, heard only by the Bender. The number of pops told the Bender the number of dimensions he had been able to push the Cartesian through. To date, Nikoli had only managed six, still the highest number among his cousins.

      Each cousin sat quietly, staring off into the distance, probably thinking about what lay ahead.

      A full five minutes went by before Lucien broke the silence. “Any of you have an idea about how those ugly mother-effers were created?”

      Gavril cleared his throat. “All I know is that eons ago somebody pissed somebody else off, and that somebody else turned somebody number one into a Cartesian. How they multiplied from there, I don’t have a clue.”

      Ronan leaned over and crossed his arms on the small table. “The first one was created as punishment, for what I’m not sure. I don’t think any Bender still alive really knows for sure. But Cartesians multiply by kills.”

      Frowning, Lucien cocked his head to one side. “Huh?”

      “Kills,” Ronan repeated. “When the first Cartesian made his first kill in the netherworld, it gave him enough power to create another one just like him. That new Cartesian makes a kill, it now has the power to reproduce itself, but only if the original Cartesian allows it. And you can bet he does. Who wouldn’t want the biggest army in the universe?”

      “You mean they don’t breed like everybody else?” Lucien asked.

      “No,” Ronan replied. “As far as I know, and this comes from two of the oldest Benders I know in Switzerland, Cartesians don’t even have sex organs. Not only do they not procreate, they don’t even have genders.”

      “That’s fucked up,” Gavril said. “No wonder those things are always out hunting, killing, destroying shit. I’d probably be that way, too, if I never had sex.”

      “But if they’re genderless, why are they usually referred to as male?” Lucien asked.

      “Probably because they’re big sonsabitches,” Nikoli chimed in.

      Gavril shook his head. “Well, all I’ve gotta say is whoever or whatever did the punishing sure screwed up. Bet they didn’t count on the bastard wanting and working toward ruling the entire universe.”

      “Did everyone get the info on why so many suddenly hit New Orleans?” Ronan asked.

      “One of the Triads,” Nikoli said.

      “You mean those witches we’re supposed to meet out there?” Lucien asked.

      “Yes,” Nikoli said, then signaled for the steward standing at the back of the plane to bring drinks to the table.

      “Why are they called Triads?” Lucien asked.

      Nikoli waited for the steward to place four glasses of cold, sparkling water on the table then head back to his station before he responded. “Because they’re triplets.”

      “Oh, man, sweet!” Gavril said, twitching in his seat.

      “Down, boy,” Nikoli warned. “Remember the code. No funny business while on a mission.”

      Gavril groaned and tossed his head back against his seat. “Spoil sport.”

      “Do these triplets run their own coven?” Ronan asked.

      Nikoli shook his head, then took a long, much-needed drink of water. “Triads belong to a sect of witches called the Circle of Sisters. They don’t have covens like other witches. The Circle of Sisters is small, comparatively. Maybe fifteen hundred worldwide.”

      “All of them sets of triplets?” Lucien asked.

      “No. There’s only one full set of Triads per generation, and each СКАЧАТЬ