“Mounted machine gun and three rifles. Willis, do your thing,” Danvers said.
Wills brandished a small sand-dollar sized black device.
“What is that?” I asked with a whisper.
“You’ll see,” Danvers said.
Willis rolled the device down the hall. He looked back at us and readied his sub-machine gun.
POP! POP!
The device exploded into a series of flashes then exploded with a loud bang. We hit the hallway fast and hard. Willis and Danvers killed two men immediately. Each siren fired two shots into the chests of their respective redshirts. I walked between the two siren soldiers and emptied my clip. I killed the third man with a shot to the neck.
We kept a steady pace and suppressed the two men on the mounted gun. We pushed forward. Suddenly, we lost our footing and fell hard to the left. Willis hit the floor. I hit the wall with my elbow, and Danvers landed on my legs. It was a siren pile-on.
“What the hell was that?” Willis asked.
“Two giant cursed beasts are fighting alongside and under the carrier as we speak. That is what that was,” I said. The steel of the ship groaned and creaked. The walls vibrated.
Our team suppressed and would have taken down the last two on the machine gun now that they had a chance to recover and return fire.
Danvers got to his feet first, but it was too late.
One redshirt held the bullet belt and fed the gun, while the other fired. Danvers didn’t have a chance. He was torn apart. His body shook from the bullet hell he endured.
I threw my empty handgun on the floor. Willis gave me his sub-machine gun, and I returned fire. Danvers wouldn’t go down. I wasn’t sure if the power of the mounted machine gun kept him upright or he was just tough as hell. Either way, it gave me enough time to hit the loader in the shoulder and the gunner in the chest.
Finally, the loud hammering sound of the mounted machine gun stopped. Danvers fell to the metal floor.
“I am sorry, Danvers. Bless you.” I nodded.
The carrier balanced and steadied. Willis and I pushed forward. The doorway to the dungeon was a few meters behind the gun.
I ran to the hatch and opened the door.
The room’s overhead lamps were off, but the glass cases were lit up, and the kids looked scared. The door opening didn’t necessarily mean kindness. Willis took point and cleared the corners of the entrance.
“How do we let them out?” Willis asked.
“There is a button that will collapse the cases.”
“How do you know? What does it look like?”
“I was in one of those for months. The button should be along the wall next to the door we just entered.”
“This one?” Willis nearly pushed the green button next to the door.
“No! That one collapses the cages, and the kids go in the water. Remember—”
The carrier tipped. Willis fell on his back. I fell on my ass and nearly broke it. The kids looked terrified.
“Again, a giant sperm whale and the Kraken are fighting outside the carrier.” I returned to my feet.
“Oh, right, the cursed seas. Fantastic.” Willis punched the red button.
The cages collapsed. He then flipped the light switch. The dungeon was truly huge. There were so many kids, more than I thought. Not two hundred but closer to three or four.
I ran out into the sea of siren children.
“Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!” I screamed as loud as I could.
The kids swarmed Willis and me.
“We will get you back to your parents. Everyone, please be calm!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Maggie! My girl! Maggie!” I yelled to no avail.
There were too many kids. The kids yelled out to us for help; the noise somewhat unbearable. Willis pulled his handgun from his leg holster and shot a round back to the hallway. “Shush!”
They stopped as if they’d been conditioned by Monty to respond to gunfire.
“Da! Da!” One tiny voice sounded from the crowd of kids varying in age from twelve to three.
“Maggie! Is that you, love?”
“Da!”
I moved through the kids. Near the hawespipe hole, I found my little girl.
I picked her up, and the emotion hit me like a tidal wave. I wept into her long, wet orange hair. Finally, I pulled away and looked at her.
“Is it really you?” I brushed some hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ears. It was an unruly mop just like her mother’s. I smiled. “Da is really sorry.”
“It’s all right, Da. It’s all right.” She patted my back. “Where’s Ma?”
“Let’s go see her.” I picked her up, and we made our way out to the dungeon door.
“Best to keep them all here, until we send for you.” I placed Maggie on the floor, so we could walk and held her hand.
Willis just nodded. “Never babysat a day in my life, but this will do me some good, I surmise.”
I patted him on the back. Then Maggie did the same but on his ass. Willis laughed.
As we made our way through the carrier’s interior, I kept covering Maggie’s eyes from the gore that filled the hall to the stairwell. We ascended the stairs to the top deck. The runway and island were relatively quiet.
“Irish! We are clear.” Pierce ran from the island to us.
“Da! Who is he?” Maggie asked.
“This is a good friend, Pierce. Pierce meet Maggie.”
“Pleasure’s all mine, kiddo. Thankfully you look like your mother,” Pierce joked.
“Speaking of which, is Imogen here?” I asked.
“Her and Monty have been dueling for a while. I have never seen anything quite like it.”
I looked to the end of the runway at the deck gun that had cut down the mast of The Relentless.
“Let’s go.” I picked up Maggie.
Pierce followed us down the runway.
Out at sea, Monty still glowed red and hovered near the top of the Eiffel Tower. Imogen threw waves of water up at him. He seemed to defend himself well. He hovered back towards the aircraft carrier.
I put Maggie on the runway a few meters behind the deck gun.
“Do you know how to work one of these deck cannons?” I asked Pierce.
“I can load the shells in. Then we just have to aim and gauge the distance, right?” Pierce asked.
“That is why I am asking you, English! Bollocks. Just load the shell.”
Pierce picked up the heavy shell, loaded the gun, and sealed the shaft. “We only have one shot.”
“No shit, Pierce. Help me find the range and aim this monster. Monty is headed our way.”
Imogen gave chase in the water below Montgomery. She left a white streak of sea foam behind her. Monty moved slower than she did. No, she wasn’t chasing him. She fled from him.
“He has the stone! He has the stone!” she shouted.
She almost flew over the water.
“James! He has the stone! He ripped it from my hands! Get away!” She flew up to the runway then collapsed.
“Imogen!”
She was unconscious. Montgomery proved too advanced for a novice mage like Imogen.
The forward part of the runway started to dip.
“Mama!” Maggie ran to her mother’s side.
“James…” Pierce pointed to the Eiffel Tower.
Montgomery hovered high above between the carrier and the tower. The sea began to part in front of it. More and more of it was exposed to the air. The divide in the sea traveled toward the carrier at a steady rate. If the carrier fell into the divide, it would most likely hit the tower and all the kids would die.
We would all die.
There was only one way to prevent the coming catastrophe: kill Monty. The foredeck dipped forward more. I nearly fell. Pierce lost his footing. Butterflies hit my stomach. Everything was on a damn incline.
I made it to the gun. It was a retrofitted piece of shit. I used it to keep my balance on the in
cline.
“Pierce, how do you fire this? Aren’t these things on subs?!”
“I have no idea how to fire it. Usually yes, these were found on submarines, not aircraft carriers.”
“Well, now what? Wait, this is an aircraft carrier? Where’s the aircraft?” I asked.
“McBain said there were two, and you destroyed the other one!” Pierce leaned on the back of the deck gun.
The incline grew steadily steeper. About half of the Eiffel Tower was exposed and emerged from the sea.
“Here it comes,” I said.
“What?”
“The chopper.”
The helicopter slid down toward us, narrowly missing Imogen and Maggie. It was all black, smaller, a two-seater, and didn’t have any guns.
“Pierce, can you fly that thing?”
“Yes, of course. I am Special Forces.”
“Get on it. I will meet you in a second.” I let go of the deck gun and ran up the incline to Imogen and Maggie. “Maggie, darling, get on Da’s back now.”
Maggie complied and jumped on my back. I dragged Imogen to a position behind the deck gun. If she started to roll, the gun would prevent her from falling straight down.
“Maggie, I need you to hold on to this gun. Da will be right back.”
“Da! Da! Don’t go!” Maggie started to cry. Then she lay down on her mother and did not hold on to the gun per my command.
The helicopter spun on. Pierce made it into the cockpit. I took a wide turn to get to the passenger side. I ran almost too fast due to the incline. I almost hit the rear rotor, but I grabbed onto the door Pierce had opened and pulled myself in.
“Let’s bring that maniac down,” I said.
Pierce flew the chopper out over the sea’s divide. Almost three quarters of the Eiffel Tower was visible. The aircraft carrier dipped more and more. Soon, the gun would be the only thing keeping my family from falling to their death.
We gained altitude and headed toward Monty. He was in his red bubble like a bloody hamster. We distracted him enough. The division of the sea slowed.
Clouds had rolled in above us. Rain pelted the windshield.
“Hit him. Dip the rotors at him,” I said.
Pierce moved the yoke, pointed the nose of the chopper down, and kept his path toward Monty.
We got close and broke his concentration. The sea’s divide started to reverse.
“It’s working! Keep going, English!”
Only half the Eiffel was exposed. Pierce kept the rotors aimed at Monty. He finally turned his attention toward the helicopter completely. The bubble around him had dissipated. Perhaps with the power of the stone, he didn’t need his hover bubble. He could hover without it. His eyes burned bright red and he smiled. He wielded the stone, and sparks flew from it.
“Oh boy.” Pierce actually sounded scared.
“Don’t back down. When you get close enough, turn and I will jump out and grab onto him.”
“He will kill you.”
“It will be a noble death, then.”
Only a quarter of the Eiffel Tower was exposed. The division had nearly been erased. The carrier was almost level again.
As we flew closer, the uglier and more frightening Monty was. I pushed back my fear. It was almost time to turn.
“Now! Pierce! Now!”
Pierce turned hard to the left. I jumped out of the chopper. Monty attempted to punch the helicopter with the stone in his fist but missed. I speared him in the ribs, and he dropped the stone. It flew into the air and was carried away by the wind.
We fell down to the water. I held onto him. His stomach was impaled over my shoulder, and I held his back to the water.
The water approached quickly. At the height we fell from, it would be a hard impact. I used Monty as a shield. He hit the water first with a smacking sound followed by a loud crack. The fall snapped his back in half.
I drove him further into the depths of Submerged Paris, where he could not possibly survive. A mage, but also a mere man. If he were conscious, he would have had pressure sickness by now. Drown the bastard, I had said.
I left him twitching and convulsing near the Monument to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
As I swam up, I looked down, and Monstro’s carcass had floated next to Monty. Then in a flash, Monty’s body was gone. I couldn’t see why until I saw the Kraken swim away, heading towards the Champs de Mars.
The sea around me began to clear. It was murky in cursed waters, but it had dissipated. I hit the surface, and it was still cloudy and rainy, yet I felt a certain vitality in the water. A calmness beset by the destruction of evil.
My heart then began to beat incredibly fast again. I turned around. The emerald floated near me. It must have touched my back. I swam a few feet away.
“Da! Da!” Maggie called out.
Imogen followed close behind and grabbed the stone.
We were a family again. Reunited in the water.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The aircraft carrier was intact and was used as a way to house the siren children until the Siren Guard could help them find their parents again. Pierce and his teams had accomplished yet another mission. He was a good siren and a good friend. He would have to come visit us soon, I told him.
After Monty died and ever since Imogen had the stone in her possession, the cursed waters of Europe have been purified of their pollution. The monsters retreated. The sun shined brighter. Even the small portions of land that weren’t submerged had been healed, and the water levels had been receding. It was possible that the Eiffel Tower would rise high above actual Paris once more, and not its Submerged doppelganger.
There was a certain degree of happiness that filled the air and the sea, and my home. I have since given up the drink. The price I paid for it was too high. No intoxication is worth the loss of one’s family.
On the wall in my home is a stark reminder of that period of my life. A token, sign, a symbol of an era that changed the course of my life. It demonstrated that which gave true meaning.
A man once said to me “Be Happy.” In order for one to be happy, one must relentlessly pursue a better version of themselves, which in turn impacts those around them. Family is paramount and is the notion I am reminded of when I look at that sign: The Relentless.
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The Viking Throne
Contents
“From the opening pages to the final sentence, you are treated to a rollercoaster of fun and frights.”- DT Chantel
There be monsters in this story. No turning back now.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
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ud and Maeve in a high octane, paranormal thriller riddled with zombies, witches, and monsters!
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Also by JB Michaels
Copyright © 2018 by JB Michaels
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Also by JB Michaels
The Tannenbaum Tailors series- An incredible world in miniature. Mutli-Award-winners. USA Today Bestseller
The Bud Hutchins Thrillers! Paranormal mayhem awaits!
The Viking Throne: The Cursed Seas Collection Page 12