by N. P. Martin
I nodded. "I’d put money on it. I don’t know where it is, though, not exactly anyway. I was hooded when I was brought there the last time."
"Don’t worry," she said. "I know exactly where it is."
"What? How?"
"After you went to see Iolas, I did some digging through his files. He kept tabs on everything, including Council black sites. I figured if I was going to visit him, that I didn’t want a couple of thugs hooding me in the back of a van. I’d rather get there of my own accord."
I could’ve kissed her. In fact, I did kiss her, taking her head in both hands as I pressed my lips against hers, surprised when she responded by opening her mouth and sliding her tongue briefly inside my mouth. When we pulled apart, we stared at each other for a brief moment, as though reconnecting after all the upheaval lately. "Come on," she said eventually. "We don’t have much time if we want to save Monty."
"I can get us there quick," I said. "I’ve been perfecting my portaling abilities lately. Just give me a location and I’ll whisk us right there."
Night had fallen when we landed near the black site that turned out be nestled in the hills just outside the city. Amelia and I set crouched on the crest of a grassy slope around the outside of the large compound, which appeared to be protected by an electrified fence. The only light came from inside the sprawling one story building itself, which was enough to partially illuminate the yard outside and the two guards who seemed to be patrolling it.
"So what’s the plan?" Amelia asked.
"Plan? I haven’t thought that far ahead."
"Can you portal us inside?"
I nodded. "I suppose that would be easier than trying to get past the electric fence and the two guards."
"That’s what I was thinking. Do you know the layout inside?"
"Not really," I said. "Just the part I was in last time."
Amelia shook her head at me. "You’re not much of an operative, are you?"
"Give me a break. I didn’t know I’d be back here, least of all to infiltrate the place."
"Just get us inside," she said as she took out one of her guns. "How many do you think are in there?"
I shrugged. "Hard to say. Staff seemed thin on the ground when I was here last."
"We’ll just have to take our chances then."
"All we have to do is find Monty. Once we do, I can portal us straight out again. And Amelia?"
"What?"
"Try not to kill anybody. We don’t know if these people are Council or Disciples."
Amelia pulled back the slide on her gun. "I don’t care. If they try to stop us, I’ll put them down."
"Can’t you just shoot them in the leg or something? If the fucking Terminator can do it, so can you."
She laughed slightly. "The Terminator?"
"Yeah, you’d have been good in that movie, the one with the female Terminator."
"That’s how you see me? As a killing machine?"
"Of course not, but you don’t exactly hold back either."
"If I kill someone, it’s because they deserve it, or because they tried to kill me first. If anyone in here tries to kill me, I won’t be shooting them in the leg, believe me."
I shook my head, knowing I was never going to win this argument. "Okay, fine. Do what you have to do. Hopefully, you won’t need to anyway."
I moved behind a large shrub that masked the light from the portal once I opened it. I went through first, focusing on coming out in the front hallway, which I did, with Amelia coming through a second later as she immediately aimed her gun at the surprised guard sitting behind the front desk, the same large, bearded man I remember from last time.
"Hands up asshole!" Amelia said as she moved aggressively toward the desk.
"I’d do as she says," I told the man, who raised his hands up in front of him, looking surprisingly calm for someone who had a gun pointed at him. "What’s your name?"
He said nothing until Amelia walked up to him and put her gun to his head. "John," he said.
"John," I repeated as I checked up the corridor for signs of other people. "You probably remember me from the last time I was here."
"You came to see the elf."
"That’s right. How many more are here?"
"How many more what?"
"Staff," Amelia said, pressing the gun against his forehead now, and for the first time, John seemed slightly afraid. I didn’t blame him. Amelia could be intimidating, more so now that she appeared to be sublimating her recent anguish into something a bit more aggressive.
"Just the two guards outside," he said. "That’s it."
"You’re lying." Amelia pressed her gun harder against his head, causing him to wince with concern for his life.
"Fine," he said. "There’s about half a dozen staff throughout the building. Most of them are just workers. They won’t pose any threat to you."
"We’ll be the judge of that," Amelia said.
I walked up to the desk. "Okay, John, we’re only here for our friend. You take us to him and no one will get hurt."
"Who’s your friend?"
"Monty McGuire."
He snorted slightly. "The joker."
"That’s him. Where is he?"
"In the room next to the elf."
"Iolas?" Amelia asked.
"Yeah," John said, looking at Amelia as if he was now just noticing the resemblance.
"All right," she said, taking a step back. "Move out from behind the desk, slowly." He did as she asked while she kept her gun trained on him, coming to stand in the corridor. Amelia shifted behind him. "Now move."
As we followed John up the long corridor, I kept an eye on our six. The place seemed quiet, like hospital at night kind of quiet, almost eerily so. "How many prisoners do you have here?" I asked John.
"Including your friend, thirteen."
"Thirteen? Who are they all?"
"People the Council don’t want running around in society."
"The Council or just Benedict Bonneville?"
"Does it matter?"
"Maybe."
"Forget it," Amelia said to me. "We’re not hear to break everyone out."
"And what if they don’t deserve to be here, like Monty?"
"Some of them are mass murderers," John said. "Just so you know."
"See," Amelia said. "Let’s just get Monty and go."
I had a feeling that every prisoner in this place was here because they somehow posed a threat to the Disciples of Apep, put here by Benedict so he could keep them safely out of the way. But even if that was the case, I knew I didn’t have time to get them all out. I should’ve been in Belfast by now, meeting up with Adrina. Amelia was right, we should just get Monty and go. If the world was still here down the line, I could always come back and sort out the other prisoners. A while longer in captivity wouldn’t hurt them.
John led us into a hallway that I recognized. To my left was the door that led into the room where Iolas was being kept prisoner. "Your friend is in there," he said, pointing to the door just down a bit from Iolas’.
"Open it," Amelia said, keeping the gun on him as he moved toward the door, his hand going to the keychain on his belt.
"You should know," I said to Amelia. "Iolas’ cell is through that other door there."
Amelia stared at me a moment. "He’s in there?"
I nodded. "Go and see him if you want. I’ll sort Monty out."
She thought for a minute, and then ordered John to open the other door. "Thanks," she said, and then hit him with a left hook to the jaw that seemed effortless, but which rendered John unconscious before he even hit the floor. Then she looked at me. "See? Still alive."
I smiled as I shook my head. "I’ll get Monty."
As Amelia went into the room where Iolas was being kept, I went into the room next door to be confronted by a thick plexiglass partition, behind which Monty lay on top of a single bed, dressed in a white jump suit. He sat up when he noticed the door opening, and his eyes widened in surprise wh
en he saw me. I smiled as I went to the plexiglass. "It’s well for some," I said. "Lying around on their lazy ass."
"Corvin," Monty said as he came to the plexiglass. "Please tell me you’re here to get me out."
"Actually, I’m just here for a visit…"
Monty’s face dropped. "Are you shitting me?"
"Yes, of course I’m shitting you. Jesus, do you think I was just going to let you rot in here?"
He breathed a sigh of relief as he shook his head. "I don’t know what to think. I thought I was never getting out of here."
Rather than mess about with doors or trying to get through the plexiglass, I simply portaled into Monty’s cell. Once I did, Monty pulled me into a hug. "I can always count on you, bro," he said.
"All right," I said after breaking away. "We don’t have time for bro-hugs. We need to get out of here."
"You’re telling me. Let’s do it, bro."
I portaled us back into the room and then we walked out into the hallway. When Monty spotted John lying out cold on the floor, he went over and grabbed his keys. "What are you doing?" I asked him.
"Getting this contraption off." He pulled up his jumpsuit to show me the metal bracelet on his right ankle. "It stops me from using me magic."
"Bastard’s have thought of everything," I said, before going into the next room to find Amelia standing, with Iolas on the other side of the plexiglass. His long white hair seemed tousled and greasy, and his face pinched and drawn, as if being a prisoner for so long had begun to take its toll on him.
"Corvin," he said, as if glad to see me. "Tell her I’ve changed."
I looked at Amelia, then back to him. "I don’t know if that’s true or not."
"He wants me to release him," Amelia said, seeming unsure of what to do.
I shrugged. "It’s up to you."
"Please," Iolas said as he stood close to the glass. "I’m dying in here, Amelia, fading away without my magic."
"That’s the whole point," Amelia said, a note of bitterness in her voice, for which I couldn’t blame her for.
"Look at me, Amelia," Iolas said, seeming to have genuine regret and remorse in his eyes. "I deeply regret the way I treated you."
Amelia walked close to the plexiglass. "You crucified me…tortured me…"
Iolas closed his eyes for a second, as if the shame was too much. "I know. There’s not a day goes by when I don’t feel shamed by that callous act."
"You’re only saying that because you’re stuck in here."
"I’ll admit, being a prisoner has given me much time to think and evaluate my past actions," he said. "I’ve done much I regret." He shifted his gaze to me for a second, as if implying that he regretted having my mother killed. "I chose the wrong side."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"After I did what I did to your mother, I knew I had gone too far," he said. "I acted like the unthinking disciple that I was."
"You’re one of them?" Amelia asked disgustedly.
"I was," he said. "I stepped away from the Disciples, refused to do their bidding any longer. Why do you think I’m in this cursed place? I’m here because Benedict and his cronies wanted to punish me for going against them. They never cared about the death magic book. They just wanted me, and they used you, Corvin, to get at me. Used your grief and desire for revenge to their advantage."
I shook my head in disgust. "You’re all despicable as far as I’m concerned."
"I agree," Amelia said. "Let’s go, Corvin."
As we went to walk away, Iolas pressed himself against the plexiglass. "Please!" he shouted. "Don’t leave me here! I beg of you!"
"We have company," Monty said as he poked his head around the door. "I can hear voices getting closer."
"Okay," I said, then looked at Amelia. "I’ll leave you to decide what you’re going to do."
She gripped my arm as I went to go out to the hallway, putting her head close to mine. "What do you think I should do?" she asked in a low voice. "I don’t know what to do."
"He’s your uncle," I said after a pause. "I know he’s an asshole, but he’s the only family you have left." I looked over at Iolas, who appeared to have tears in his eyes now. "He seems to have learned his lesson."
"And if he hasn’t?"
"Then you bitchslap his ass back behind bars again."
Amelia nodded as she let go of my arm, and I went out to he hallway with Monty, just in time to see a man and a woman come walking around the corner at the end of the corridor. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw us, then promptly sprinted back around the corner again.
"Should we go after them?" Monty asked.
I thought for a second and then shook my head. "No, let them go. We’ll be out of here shortly anyway."
As I went to go and check on Amelia, I heard two loud bangs coming from the room. When I went inside I saw that Amelia had shot the lock on the partition door, before kicking it open, allowing a grateful looking Iolas to come walking out. Amelia grabbed his arm as he did so. "Don’t make me regret this," she said, looking like she did already. "And just so we’re clear, I run the business now. I’m the boss now, not you."
Iolas nodded after staring at her for a moment. "Of course."
"You’ll be wanting that bracelet off," Monty said, holding up John’s keys before tossing them to Iolas. Amelia, however, caught the keys before Iolas did.
"Not yet," she said, pocketing the keys.
Iolas seemed pissed, but he said nothing, and I smiled at the wicked smile on Amelia’s face.
Payback’s a bitch, I thought.
Chapter 7
Before any sort of back-up could arrive at the compound, I portaled us all out of there, landing us back at the Tasar mansion, in the entrance hallway.
"What the hell happened here?" Monty asked as he stared at the bodies lying around.
"Amelia needed to get some shit out of her system," I said.
"Looks like she managed it."
"Benedict’s men, I presume?" Iolas said, unaffected by the corpses littering the floor.
I nodded. "He was trying to get leverage over me."
"It seems like he underestimated you," Iolas said, staring at me like he knew the feeling well.
"So what now?" Amelia said.
"Where are the orcs?" Iolas asked. "They should be clearing this mess."
"I sent them away for the time being."
"Why?"
"It doesn’t matter why." She stared almost challengingly at him a moment until he nodded and looked away.
"Well, I’m just very glad to be home," he said. "I need to get out of this awful jumpsuit, however."
"You and me both," Monty said. "It’s killing me style."
"You were a prisoner," I said. "Prisoners don’t have style."
"You can help me dispose of these bodies," Amelia said to him. "Maybe keep the jumpsuit on until we’re done."
Monty nodded, even though the idea of disposing of bodies clearly left a bad taste in his mouth. "Aye, whatever you say."
"Perhaps you wouldn’t mind removing this bracelet from my ankle now," Iolas said to Amelia.
"I would mind actually," she said.
"You’re still punishing me," he said, seeming to accept it, knowing he didn’t have a choice. Things had changed, and there was no going back. Iolas knew this as well as anybody.
"I might crucify you later too, just so you know how it feels."
Monty made a hissing sound as he looked at Iolas. "Oh, I felt that one," he said. "You know what they say, Iolas? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Iolas gave Monty and irritated look as I smiled to myself. "Right," I said. "I have to go to Belfast now."
Amelia frowned. "Belfast? What for?"
"To meet up with Adrina Ó Duinn."
"I see," she said, sounding slightly miffed. "Why are you meeting with vampires?"
"Not just vampires. Members of the Order."
"Clearly Corvin hasn’t filled you in on wha
t’s happening," Iolas said, smiling slightly to himself. "About who he really is, for instance."
I threw Iolas a look as if to say, "Thanks."
"Bro?" Monty said. "What’s he talking about?"
Obviously Mirahorn said not to say anything, but as it seemed like my true heritage was the worst kept secret ever, I didn’t see the harm in talking about it now. "Well, to put it bluntly, I’m a demigod," I said, then laughed. "As ludicrous as that sounds."
"Holy shit, bro," Monty said. "That’s…awesome!"
I sighed slightly as I looked at Amelia, who stared at me in confusion. "You’re serious," she said.
"He is," Iolas said. "Corvin here is none other than the son of Cernunnos."
"That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard," Amelia said.
"Maybe," I said. "But it’s true. Why do you think Benedict and the Disciples of Apep are going to such great lengths to get at me?"
"How long have you known about this?" she asked.
"I just found out yesterday."
"From old Mirahorn, I assume?" Iolas said.
"Yes."
"This is awesome," Monty said, smiling and shaking his head. "My mate the demigod. The girls are going to love that one." He paused to frown for a second. "But what about your powers? Ive never seen you do anything…demigody."
"I can control animals," I offered almost sheepishly. "I found that one out earlier."
"Awesome," Monty said again.
"He won’t gain his real powers until he meets his father, Cernunnos," Iolas said. "His powers must be activated."
"So Mirahorn said."
Amelia stood staring at me as she shook her head in seeming disbelief. "There’s never a dull moment with you, is there?"
I felt like saying that’s why she loved me, but didn’t in front of the other two. "I’m sure Iolas knows the whole story behind everything, with Erebus and what the Disciples are planning. He can fill you in."
"Who’s Erebus?" Monty asked.
"Another demigod that I have to somehow stop from destroying the world, that’s all."
"Indeed," Iolas said grimly, knowing full well what I and everyone else would be up against soon enough, having been no doubt instrumental in helping the Disciples lay their plans, which made me wonder…