it giving just a little right away and he thought about jumping back out before it fell or something but then it seemed to be more or less stable so he stayed put. But he looked quickly around for something to grab in case the whole damn thing went and as he did his eyes crossed across the hole they'd cut in the roof for Cat to drop his gas balloons and he saw, there on the floor of the elevator car, a brand new hole, a hole that had been torn in the floor, a hole that hadn't been there five minutes ago, had it?
And then something obscured his view and he saw and recognized the face, that face...
"Oh, my God..."
And the face smiled and said, "Crow" in that voice.
Crow was throwing himself backward out of the shaft to safety when the top of the car blew out and the air was filled with shrapnel and everybody else hit the deck and Jack, still on the floor, grabbed his crossbow out of Cat's hands and yelled, "Get back! It's him!"
But it was too late. He had already begun to rise from the hole he had just made and it was really the effortless way he did this that froze them so. The way he simply raised himself with the grip of a single beautiful hand, almost levitating toward them, his power and eyes and smile and terrible beauty so alien but so familiar, so pale but so solid, so horrible but so magnetic.
He wore black leather boots that laced to just below the knee and black ballet tights and a black silk sash and a huge white billowy shirt and he was magnificent and beautiful and scary and ungodly strong and the instant, almost spasmodic, desire to harm him was strong and deep and true but so, somehow, was something just as strong and deep - the itch to do something that would make him smile.
But he was smiling already as he strode casually toward them.
Jack took a step back and raised his crossbow.
He/It smiled more broadly and the white teeth against that pale skin surrounded by the fall of curly jet-black hair and... The headband, Jack thought. He's wearing a white headband. That means something.
Doesn't it?
And he raised the crossbow higher.
"Crow," it said and its voice filled them. "You and your wooden stakes. When you are one of us, we'll have a big laugh together about them."
This was looking grim.
"Everybody back," ordered Crow. "Back away and out."
But before anyone could move, the voice came once more: "Too late. You've let me get too close."
And he/it took another casual step toward them.
"Get back!" ordered Crow again over his shoulder. "Move it!"
And they started to obey but the vampire took another step and Jack raised the crossbow all the way then, to firing position, and said, "Hold it there."
And the thing laughed and said, "Are you joking? Why? I'm not one of my women..."
"Stop!" said Jack Crow.
And the thing smiled more and showed the big teeth and said, "Stop me."
And Jack Crow said, into his radio headset, "Hit it, Joplin!" and fired his massive crossbow at point-blank range.
The vampire caught it. In midair.
And then it took the baseball-bat-sized arrow bolt in both hands and, with a flick of his wrists, like a breadstick, broke it.
And the cable went taught and the piece still connected was zipped out of sight through the door and the vampire laughed again.
"You fools!" it said. "Did you really think you could slay gods and face no penalty?"
And it took the other half of the bolt, the pointed end, and hurled it straight down at its feet and the point disappeared completely out of sight into the floor.
Felix's gun was in his hand. He raised it.
The vampire turned sharply to him at the motion.
"You point that toy at me and I will, quite literally, rip your spine from your body."
Felix damn near dropped the pistol to the floor. Just from that voice.
Crow wasn't finished.
"Lights!" he yelled and keyed his on and there was a brief pause but then every one of them did the same and the halogen crosses burst forth and crisscrossed the wicked form and the thing frowned and winced and took a step back and raised a hand to shield his eyes.
"He doesn't like it!" announced Crow excitedly.
But the vampire just snorted in derision and said, "Why no, Crow. I don't like it. But this won't kill me either."
And it took a step