Lilith's Children

by Rachel Pudelek

  I studied the women in the van with me, my chin lowered to keep them from knowing I watched them. I’d never felt so unsure of what I was going into. These other Wilds had never dealt with Hunters before. Had they ever fought? Did they know how to fight?

  I scolded myself for not asking those important questions before stuffing myself and my aunts in a van with them on our way to fight our biggest enemies. It was too late now. I’d look as though I didn’t trust them, which could possibly lower my aunts’ confidence in them and their confidence in us. And lowered confidence translates to lowered fighting effectiveness.

  A hand with an eye tattoo covering most of the back of it tapped my shoulder from behind. Anwen’s hand.

  I turned in my seat. “Yeah?”

  “You’re beginning to work yourself up and I don’t want that energy to spread,” the nagin stated.

  Goddess, was anything private among Wild Women?

  “I’m only working out an attack plan in my head,” I half-lied and then realized she may be able to tell if I was lying too, so I gave in and shut up.

  I needed to trust in the rusalki, their guidance and insistence that we had what it took to liberate the succubi. I wished I’d shown my aunts how to access and store the good stuff from the poison hemlock plant, given them more to work with. But no, that would mean they wouldn’t be able to use their Goddess-given abilities. I was the only Wild in this van who couldn’t. No wonder the others seemed more confident than me. They were.

  My phone vibrated in my back pocket, shocking me out of my spiraling self-doubt and borrowed bravado. I viewed the screen and saw Marcus’s most recent cell number—I’d stopped inputting names and contacts into my throw-away phones.

  “Succubi rescue service, how may I direct your call?” I answered.

  “Cute,” Marcus responded. “But I’ve got a young buck on the phone with Aleksander, who’s received permission from his incubi leader to help rescue Heather, the love of his life. I wanted to check-in with you before I gave him the address.”

  “Mason wants to help get Heather out,” I repeated, partially to confirm and partially to announce it to the others in the van with me whose hearing may not be as sharp as a huldra’s. “Drosera did say the Hunters’ blood stones don’t affect males, and we could use the added help.”

  The other Wilds said nothing, so I mulled it over and found no down side to accepting the offer of a forlorn incubus. Isn’t love grand?

  “I thought Aleksander said he didn’t want his incubi fighting the Hunters, in case a Hunter got away and told the higher ups,” I reminded.

  “Yeah,” Marcus confirmed. “He stands firm on that and doesn’t want to bring Mason with us onto the complex to set up the explosives either. Thinks it’ll be too risky, allowing him to get so close to his captured love. So Aleksander said Mason can help by driving the leader’s fastest get-away cars, meet you all after you’ve left the complex. Mason has agreed to control himself until then.”

  “That’s fine, as long as he doesn’t get near the complex before we arrive,” I said. “And stays in his car while he waits.”

  Marcus repeated the address and directions to the Oregon Hunter complex, right outside of Portland, so Aleksander could repeat it to Mason. “We’re on our way too, but we plan on approaching the back way, through the woods. The bed of my truck is full of things that go boom.”

  “Wait,” I added. “If Mason is allowed to help us get away, why isn’t Aleksander chomping at the bit to follow me into battle? He’s honestly all right with his one true mate battling a group of supernatural men while he hides in the forest, waiting to detonate explosives?”

  Marcus gave a curt laugh, one that showed his lack of enthusiasm on the topic. “First, we’re not hiding in the forest. And second, Aleksander has given his next in command instructions to take him underground and place him on lock-down in a detainment chamber built to house unruly incubi the moment he starts acting weird. And I’ll carry out the plan on my own. So to answer your question, no, he’s not all right watching from afar. But if he follows you into a Hunter complex he’ll be putting his whole hoard in jeopardy and possibly positioning them for outside attacks from other groups of supernaturals. That’s why if he loses his shit, he’ll do it from behind iron bars and locked doors.”

  I knew it was cruel, but I laughed anyway.

  “It’s also why he agreed to allow Mason to meet up with you,” Marcus said. “If one incubus is noticed, others won’t assume he’s with a hoard, which makes him less threatening. And he was given the directive to bring you back alive. From both Aleksander and me.”

  I grumbled.

  “Sorry, babe,” he added. “I have no doubt you’ve got this in the bag, but a little added insurance never hurt anyone.”

  “That’s how I know I’m living in a man’s world,” I said, only partially joking. “I’ve got a group of men trying to control me and other men trying to protect me.”

  “Speaking of the men trying to control you,” Marcus said, his tone a tad more ominous than his last statement.

  “What now?” I groaned. Good Goddess, I was tired of this tug-of-war shit. I doubted the nagin sitting behind me had to deal with this crap on a daily basis. They probably had lower blood pressure too.

  “Rod has new information,” Marcus started.

  “Yeah?”

  “And he says there’s been a new development with the Oregon Hunters.”

  “Dammit,” I exhaled. “What now?”

  “My dad and John have teamed up and they’re in Oregon,” he said, his voice low and angry.

  “It’s a good thing you’re not in the van with me, then. They’ll recognize you,” I stated, skirting around the blaring warnings in my head. “Maybe you shouldn’t be a part of the crew placing the explosives at the complex.”

  “I’m going to do this. I don’t care if they recognize me,” he nearly growled.

  “Well I do,” I assured him. “I need your connections more to help take down the east coast complexes, full of trained Hunters whose roots are much deeper into their old ways than the west coast guys.”

  Of course, it was only a matter of seconds before Marcus put voice to my new worries. “My dad and John have got to be there to help the Oregon complex, help prepare them to know what’s coming. Why else would they have left their posts? That means the Oregon Hunters will have been trained in fighting huldra, Faline. They may even have combined their armies after pushing your aunts and sisters out of their homes.”

  Hello, worst case scenario, welcome to my life. And please don’t cause my death.

  “Well,” I said after a couple breaths and a little prayer to Freyja. “We’re not turning this van around.”

  “No, I wouldn’t think you would,” he responded. “The same way I’m not letting this stop me from doing what needs to be done. Just come back to me in one piece.” That last part sounded more like a plea than a command.

  I wanted to make him laugh, loosen the tension in the van and on the other side of the phone call, so I joked. “I will, but if I don’t, do me a favor. Set Aleksander free on the Oregon complex. If I go down, I’d love to know a pissed off incubi leader was hot on my heels to slaughter a whole complex of Hunters with the power of non-stop, brain-bursting orgasms, or whatever incubi do to seek vengeance on their foes.”

  I could almost hear Marcus rolling his eyes. “Very funny, Faline,” he said dryly. “But if you don’t come back, I’ll reach the inner complex before Aleksander’s first tear shed hits the forest floor.” There wasn’t an ounce of joking in his voice.

  Chen turned the van off of a dirt road and drove it deep enough into the woods that it wouldn’t be easily noticed from the road. She put the vehicle in park and killed the engine. Everyone unbuckled their seat belts. Chen and her sister grabbed their instruments from the space between their two bucket seats and positioned them on their backs.

  “It’s time,” I whispered to Marcus, despite the fact that they could
all hear me. “I’ve got to go.”

  Marcus let out a long exhale, probably praying to his God for our safety. “All right. Well, Aleksander and I will meet you back at the house when everything’s done. You guys leave as soon as possible, we’ll stay behind to make sure the place blows up before they can rush to their trucks and follow you,” he said. “And Faline, you know how I feel.”

  That was our new code for “I love you,” a decision we both made after exchanging the sentiments for the first time and realizing doing so around the other Wild Women would probably shake things up a bit more than we’d preferred for the time being.

  “Thank you,” I responded. “I feel the same way. See you soon.”

  I returned my cell to my back pocket as I shuffled out of the van and stretched. My aunts and I removed our shoes and placed them on the floor of the van beside the echidna’s shoes. After locking up the vehicle, the ten of us silently walked through the woods, heading for the Oregon Hunter complex. We planned to come at it from the front, while the men waited for us to enter the building before trespassing from the back of the property.

  The sun showed no signs of rising, and only a sliver of moon lit our way, which wasn’t a problem because clearly the snake women had night vision too. With my huldra abilities suppressed, I followed the others. Wet ferns brushed our knees. Damp pine needles poked at our bare feet. Owls hooted and small animals scurried out of our path. I missed the peace of the forest at night. It energized me, reminded me what I was made of: wildness. I’d nearly forgotten that, trapped in a city full of man-made things.

  Eta put a hand out to motion that we had made it. We viewed the wrought iron fence from the forest. It stood tall and commanding in the night, with bright flood lamps pointing in all directions. Like the Washington complex, what looked like the tips of iron daggers pointed up at the sky from the top of the fence. I also spotted a camera and a speaker box positioned outside the gate. We’d expected as much and planned for it too.

  Each Wild Woman crouched, positioning herself to jet out of the line of trees and hit the gate at a run, enough to jump over the thing and storm into the main building where the rusalki had told me the succubi were being kept.

  With her hand still held up, Eta counted down from four…three…two…ONE.

  Thirty-Two

  The ten of us scaled the fence with no problem. Fan even managed to kick the security camera into pieces on her way over. With everything we had, we raced along the lamp-lit cement path to the double doors of what looked to be the main building from Rod’s map. So far the complex layout was nearly identical to the Washington one.

  With gusto we swung both doors open and stormed into the main building, filled with fury and vengeance, ready to kill any Hunter who got between us and our succubi sisters.

  Except, there were no Hunters.

  The eerily empty main floor was ours for the taking. We froze in a horizontal line in the middle of the open floorplan and took turns spinning in place, taking it all in. None of us caught more than the faint linger of a Hunter’s scent, heard a Hunter’s breath, or felt the emotions of a Hunter, other than what was left behind by the men.

  Anwen rested her hands on her hips and shrugged her shoulders.

  Calle jerked her head toward a hallway at the far corner of the space. “Our sisters are that way, down below.” Exactly where Rod said they’d be.

  I hadn’t noticed when she’d changed, but those weren’t legs carrying her across the finished cement flooring so quickly. Gerda kept up with her sister and the rest of us followed.

  “Can you sense them too?” I whispered to Abigale.

  She nodded.

  Damn hemlock blocking my abilities.

  Calle and Gerda led us to the hallway filled with what looked like office doors on both our left and our right. They stopped in front of the center door on our right, a door that looked like all the rest—beige with a silver knob. Breaking the powerful lock, Calle swung the door open so hard it popped off its hinges and fell sideways, smashing a hole in the wall on its way down and landing in the now-open entry, its end hovering over the first step of many leading deep under the main building.

  The two Wilds with snake tails glided down the stairs while the rest of us followed as quietly as possible. Chen and Fan pulled their instruments from their carrying cases at their backs and held their fingers over the strings at the ready.

  Blood stones of all different shapes and sizes covered the walls, and suddenly instead of damning the hemlock, I found myself thanking it. A layer of soot darkened some of the stones and my stomach heaved at the sight of them, the very stones taken from my sister’s prison. John had brought these, the evil male. I hoped I saw him soon; I yearned to pump poison into his veins and roots into his heart. The hemlock may have been restricting most of my Wild abilities, but thankfully it supported my ability to grow roots, something the plant and I had in common. I caught my aunt Abigale running a finger along a blackened red stone, a look of sadness in her eyes, and I urged her forward. She shot me a look filled with venom and I prayed to Freyja my aunt could soon know the sweet relief of revenge for her daughter’s pain.

  The cement stairs and blood-stone-covered walls curved in a spiral until we came to the dark bottom and an even darker hallway. Thankfully, the other Wilds joining me on this rescue mission weren’t thwarted by poison running through their veins and caught the scent of the succubi galere from behind the door at the end of the hallway.

  Gerda broke the steel door from its lock and hinges.

  Bars separated us from a group of women from which a combined gasp escaped. Blood stones littered the walls in here too, but I didn’t need my nose to tell me. Marie and her succubi galere stood at once, shocked to see familiar and unfamiliar faces.

  I rushed ahead and stopped not even an inch from the bars.

  “You came!” Marie exclaimed, clinging to the bars that stood between me and her. “But how did you get past the Hunters?”

  “They’re gone,” I answered, knowing full well we may have just walked into a trap. The sooner we freed our Wild sisters, the better. The possibility that we’d need to fight our way out any minute bore heavy on me. “How do we get you out?” I searched for a key hanging somewhere or a keypad on or around the barred door. Rod hadn’t gone so far as to explain exactly how the succubi were being detained, just where.

  “Did you bring food?” Heather whined, standing from a wooden bench in the large cell. “They haven’t fed us and we’re so hungry.”

  “Let’s concentrate on getting home first,” Marie said to Heather, patting the younger succubus on the shoulder. The succubi leader shifted her attention back to me. “The way to open the cell door is there.” She pointed to what looked like a metal box hanging on the wall. “Though I don’t know the code. I tried to watch them input it, but they noticed and covered it with their free hand.”

  Patricia walked to the metal box and tried to open it. “Hold on, it’s locked,” she said right before she pulled the thing from the wall, exposing a small square of backlit buttons.

  “I’ve got this,” Anwen said. “Everything is energy.” She held her tattooed hand over the buttons and closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed as her hand shook so quickly it seemed to vibrate.

  The holding cell door clicked open and Marie rushed through, wrapping her arms around me. “You don’t know how glad we are to see you all!” Marie looked to the nagin, shé, and echidna Wild Women. “Thank you for trusting our rusalki friends and coming to our aide, sisters.” She pulled away from me and took turns hugging her new snake sisters. “There were more Hunters than usual, when we came in for our check-in,” she said over her shoulder to me.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said, motioning to the dark hall. “We can compare notes back at the house.”

  “They drugged our older members,” Marie said, motioning to the younger women to help the older Wilds stand from the benches they rested on, and walk. “They separated us from t
hem in the beginning, and then after they enclosed us in here, they brought back our older members, groggy and weak.”

  “They knew the older succubi were probably post-menopausal and wouldn’t be affected by the blood stones. They had to drug them to keep control,” I said. Who the hell told them, though?

  Thankfully none of their elders were in the same shape I’d found Shawna after she’d been drugged by a Hunter.

  The succubi followed my aunts and me, with the other snake Wilds bringing up the rear, just in case we were attacked from the front or from behind. Out of all of us, the succubi were currently the weakest, having spent time confined among blood stones and without food. Yet, when we made it to the main floor and out of the building, no one stopped us. We weren’t powerful sonars or Dopplers, but I trusted the fact that we didn’t sense one Hunter or human on the premises. It also worried me—not enough to slow our pace, though. I hoped Marcus and Aleksander had been able to get in, set the explosives, and get out because I didn’t sense them either. Although, the hemlock still pumped through my body, so maybe that’s why.

  Once they were away from the blood stone, the succubi regained a bit of their lost strength and scaled the iron fence with the rest of us.

  “Heather,” I said under my breath as we raced through the trees and ferns.

  “Yeah?” she asked, picking up her pace to run beside me.

  “We don’t have room in the van for all of us, so Mason should be here to offer a ride,” I said through a mouthful of hair my ponytail gladly supplied to my open mouth. As I briefed Heather and her succubi sisters on how we were going to get them away from the complex, I listened for an explosion behind us. Each second of silence ticking by amped up my worry for Marcus. If it didn’t happen by the time I made it to the cars, I decided to double back and look for the ex-Hunter and the incubus.

  “Other than the succubi, the snake women will return without the van,” Chen inserted herself into the conversation.