SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
PIERS ANTHONY BECKONED TO JENNY, but he seemed to be so far away. She could see his lips moving but couldn’t make out a single word he was saying. The author appeared to be shrinking in size and was obviously in some distress. His face showed the stress of it all. Piers continued to beckon Jenny and became increasingly frantic as he got smaller and smaller. Then Jenny saw Moon Diamond was dead, with no brain activity whatsoever. That made her sad, and a tear ran down her left cheek.
It was just after midnight, and Jenny was asleep in her bed but restless. She occasionally jerked as the lion cub slept at the foot of her bed. She turned from one side of the bed to the other. The nightmare progressed; she started jerking more and released a loud moan, finally waking her up. The girl wizard sat up with a gasp. The lion cub watched as she quickly got dressed and ran out of the room.
Allison and Dracula were snuggling as Jenny commenced to bang on their door. They looked at one another, and both sat up in bed. It sounded like she was going to break the door down.
“Stop doing what you’re doing and let me in! Piers is in serious trouble!”
Allison ran and opened the door to see an alarmed Jenny. “What’s wrong?”
“Piers Anthony and Moon Diamond are in serious trouble. Mood Diamond might be dead. I saw it in a dream; it was so clear.”
Had she been an ordinary child, they would have told her it was only a dream, but she was miles from normal. Dracula had been in his underwear, but he got dressed so fast that it must have been a record. He kissed Allison and rushed down the stairs, with Jenny following. The cat morphed into a full-grown lion; it blurred down the stairs and out the front door with Dracula and his daughter. A passerby ran as fast as he could at the sight of the lion.
Within seconds they arrived at the zoo and found Piers Anthony hanging upside down from a tree with Wang sucking his life energy out of him; they could see the white light leaving Piers and entering the wizard. The author was less than a minute from death. The Master was sad and angry at seeing Moon Diamond’s lifeless body on the ground.
The lioness sank its teeth into Wang’s left leg, biting down hard, and wouldn’t let go. The wizard’s scream sounded like a little girl. Surprised and caught off guard, he started to pound hard on Sarah’s head.
Zacharia’s soul shouted at them. “Kill that bastard!” But neither Jenny nor Dracula could hear anything.
Jenny blurred and broke the flow of white light from Piers to Wang as a person would snap a thread, but he turned and hit her with a bolt, taking a chunk out of her shoulder, and she winced with the pain. Dracula stepped in front of the second bolt meant for Jenny; Wang sensed her great wizard status and figured she was his most significant threat. It was his first time seeing Dracula in person, and although he had seen photos of him, he didn’t recognize him in the heat of battle. Dracula grabbed him by the neck and pulled him right off his feet; he shook him around like a rag doll. The Master choked the head off the Chinese wizard and then watched it topple to the ground; as the miscreant turned to bones, he hoped that it wasn’t too much for Jenny to handle, seeing her father so aggressive.
“Jenny, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. It healed.” Jenny picked up the cat. Moon Diamond continued to have a pulse but just barely. “Dad, the cat’s not dead, but Zacharia’s soul has been released. I guess he’s gone.”
Dracula looked depressed. His handsome face didn’t appear quite so attractive because of his pain, and even after all that he’d seen over the centuries, it was painful to lose a friend. “Zacharia’s dead?”
“All I know is that his soul is not in there.”
Dracula went over to Piers Anthony, who remained in his upside-down position. The Master snapped the rope and placed him on the ground beside the Siamese. He returned all the energy taken from him, and the author’s eyes opened. He was perplexed at Dracula staring down at him.
Jenny continued to hold the cat. “I think the poor thing is in a coma?”
There was a loud crunch as the lioness snapped one of the dead wizard’s femurs in two, then the cat spat out the bone as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. Piers petted the unresponsive cat. Jenny handed the cat to Piers as she picked up the dead wizard’s book off the ground.
Piers stroked the Siamese and was saddened by its state. “What will you do with Moon Diamond?”
“I’m going to bring him home and see if he’s going to recover. He’s not dead yet, but it doesn’t look good.”
Piers shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. Being a wizard, can you spell him back to consciousness?”
“Everyone seems to think that I’m such a powerful wizard, but my knowledge is probably comparable to a toddler. I will check this thing out and see what’s in it; it looks like a bunch of spells. But really, I need to get my hands on that Blood Book. The problem is I might not survive trying to kill that other wizard. When I was shot, I sensed his interference. He wants me dead.”
Piers gave the cat back to Jenny. “It’s strange not being able to detect Zacharia inside the cat. I’m sure he’s happier now.”
Zacharia’s ghost pushed at Piers, but his hand went right through him. “I am not happier now! All this floating around is annoying. I can’t even kill myself if I have to spend eternity like this.”