by LeAnn Mason
“I’m a supe with wings. I don’t know how to drive,” Raven snapped, giving an explanation for why it was always Cole who chauffeured the unit’s vehicular movements. “Now, where are you going?” she demanded, exasperated.
“Wings slower than legs?” I jested, pacing my way toward the end of the crescent-shaped cove.
“Aria?”
For Seke, I’d answer. “See that pipe up ahead?” I pointed to the end of a massive circular pipe that horizontally stuck out of the vegetation, disappearing into a cresting hill. “Every time I’ve had visions of my mom, I’ve accessed her makeshift cell through an underground pipe.”
“And you think this might be that same one. Even if it’s not, there may be a connecting network that will lead us to the right one. Excellent thinking.”
I warmed at the praise, sneaking a sly smile toward the Egyptian god striding next to me.
“No. No way am I wandering through raw sewage.” Raven had caught up.
I rolled my eyes as we approached the dark opening, our footsteps slowing. “Really? Because I feel like I spend a lot of my time wading through shit whenever you’re talking. It might just be drainage.”
Cole let out a chuckle and then a pained grunt. “What? That was pretty funny.”
Raven gave a little huff.
Braver than I, Gunhilde stepped around the group cowering behind me and strode over to the trickle of fluid sluicing out of the pipe in a lazy manner and meandering its way down the beach to meet the ocean. It always smelled gods-awful, but I hoped it wasn’t sewage either.
Vamps aren’t even environmentally friendly. Poor fish.
She bent at the waist, and her ever-dutiful partner Torgny stepped up behind her, grabbing one arm to keep her from leaning too far.
“Smells awful,” the valkyrie commented mildly. “But I don’t sense anything. Can only hear water. Should be safe enough.”
“Better than storming the front door,” her partner agreed, pulling her back upright before both turned to me, awaiting my next decision.
I bit my lip. I did now know the basic layout of the facility from the front door, whereas the pipe system below the compound was largely a mystery. Each time I’d visited in spectral form or whatever, I’d already been in the right section, just out of sight of my mom’s holding cell.
Always familiarize yourself with the layout of your location.
Then again, Torgny had a point. Waltzing up to the front door seemed like more of a rookie move — one likely to get us injured if not killed. Even if we didn’t have a blueprint of the sewage system, it would afford us some amount of stealth, and last I’d seen, both Ember and my mom were in that water-logged pit.
“Let’s do it. We’ll go in this way.”
“You heard her,” Seke growled reproachfully when nobody moved.
I gave him a gracious smile then led the way. I may not have had it all mapped out, but I had the most information of anyone on the team.
Raven let out a grumble as the water level began to rise the further into the pipe we traipsed.
“Shh,” I snapped, trying to listen.
It was just like my visions where darkness wiped out my ability to use sight as a guide, except this time, the swishing of several feet made it harder to hear the dripping I’d heard in past visits — and any other auditory clues as to where we were. I kept a palm pressed against the curved concrete wall as before, hoping recognition of all of my unblinded senses would help steer us. Seke could probably slip the shadows out of our sight, but that would also give anyone else an advantage in spotting us.
Thanks for stealing my sight during training, Cole.
“I’m trying not to throw up,” the bird shifter hissed from the dark behind me. “It smells like a rotting corpse.”
“Then you’d better get used to it,” Gunhilde commented mildly. “Isn’t that what we’re hunting?”
“Shh.” This time, it was Seke who silenced the group.
I cocked an ear as we hit a fork, waiting until everyone stopped moving so I could focus on the existing sounds. “This way.” I picked the left corridor, trusting my gut and that trickle that scraped at my recognition.
Paying such close attention to where we were going, I nearly jumped out of my skin when Seke’s pinky finger curled around mine. I gave a secret smile of delight at the blind contact, wondering if the settings also reminded him of the day he blindfolded me in the gym. I pushed that from my mind to be reconsidered if — no, when — we got out of here and plowed on.
When the wall began to curve, my heartbeat picked up its pace. “This is it. This is the right way. We’re almost there.” My whisper echoed around the tunnel, but I was walking faster, and the splashing was almost louder.
Seke pulled on my arm. “Slow. We mustn’t be detected.”
Right. This time, I was solid. I was actually, physically here and could be spotted even by my sounds.
I’m actually here. That thought pinged around inside me, doing weird things to my heart. I’m almost with you again, Mom! Now, that was something I never thought I’d say after she’d gone missing during my childhood.
“Shit!” My hands slammed against wrought iron bars as the other shoe dropped. I was solid this time — I couldn’t just pass through the gate at the end of the tunnel.
“Did we go the wrong way?” Cole asked.
“No.” I dropped my forehead against the bar with a clang. “I just forgot about this obstacle. When I came here in my visions, I was able to pass right through.”
“Aria?”
I froze, lifting my head to stare at the room in front of me. Something moved in the darkness, water swished, and a pale face came into view just feet in front of me, materializing out of the darkness.
I swallowed down a lump in my throat the size of Stone’s ego. “Mom.”
“You came. Oh, my sweet child.” She broke down sobbing, her hand pulling mine through the bars and drawing it against her lips. The kiss hit my knuckles at the same time as her tears.
“And I brought help,” I choked out. “I brought my team to free you.” Water dripped down my cheeks, adding to the liquid swirling around our knees.
“Good.” Mom swallowed back her emotion. “Good. Because we’re going to need all the help we can get for phase two.”
“We?” Cole asked at the same time that Raven asked, “Phase Two?”
“You’ve got it,” I promised. “Whatever you need. What can we do to help?”
“First, you can dunk.”
“Dunk? Like in the water?” Raven’s voice was horrified.
“Yes. The wetter you are, the better. You need to fully submerge. Trust me.”
I trusted her, despite not really knowing her.
“What is this, a prank? I see where you get it from, Silver. No, thank you. It’ll take me a million showers to get the smell of shit from my hair.”
“Says the woman who spends half her time in jail cells?” I couldn’t help but quip.
“Better that than the alternate fate.” I could hear my mom’s sarcastic shrug in her tone. “But the choice is entirely up to you, of course.”
As if her words were a cue, that’s when the shouting started above us.
Ember was trying not to enjoy herself. She was a member of the Harbingers of Death in order to ensure peace, to give souls a gentle helping hand into the afterlife. But soaring through the hallways of the mental institution, terrorizing the vampires who were racing to get out of her path was a powerful experience.
Behind her, she left a trail of smoldering wallpaper and flaming stained rugs — not to mention the two vampires she’d managed to ignite already. Ember reveled in the sight, sounds, and smell of the chaos rising in her wake. Nothing could stop her.
I am death, and I am life. I am flame and flesh. I am phoenix. Feel my might.
Once she reached the end of her first hallway, she swooped to loop around and headed down an as-of-yet untouched hall.
Her wingspan was
n’t as impressive as her captain’s — Seker’s hawk was quite exaggerated in size. But the phoenix dripped fire. Flames danced from her feathers and licked from each of her wingtips. She made sure to brush them against any walls and doors. Anything, really. Most things burned at the temperature of her lit form.
The first to crumble to her heat had been the door to the pit in which she’d left Enid. That one had been somewhat involuntary as, by the time she gained wings during her resurrection, she was already engulfed in fire. She had taken out the vampires in the pit first — they’d come to haul her corpse away — then soared up and out of the dank hole, leaving Enid safe beneath the soaked mattress they’d propped against a far wall.
Ember had suggested that she try to nudge the ladder into the hole for Enid to escape, but the banshee had refused, insisting that her daughter would come to that spot, looking for her. The phoenix hadn’t fought her much — the banshee may have seen something — and anyway, the wooden ladder was unlikely to survive Ember’s touch.
“Get out of my way!”
Returning to the present, Ember caught sight of a vampire at the end of the hall where it took a sharp turn, looking thoroughly terrified. He was thrusting humans around the wall and directly into her path as if trying to build a human barricade, placing obstacles in the way to prevent the oncoming tide of burning vengeance.
It worked.
Rearing up, Ember flapped her wings hard, trying to slow her approach. These humans were innocents who were being fed on by the vampires. She didn’t want to harm them. They’d certainly been through enough, considering their bedraggled and malnourished state. But she could do nothing about her incendiary state either unless she was to shut it all down entirely, and that wasn’t an option. She needed to get past them if she was to hit all the wings in the building and bring the vampire hideout tumbling down.
A crash and shouting up ahead pulled Ember’s attention. The vampire who’d finished shoving humans into the hall reappeared, flying in a less-than-graceful arc that could not have been his idea over the heads of the humans before crashing into the wall opposite and crumpling to a heap on the floor.
As she approached the bend in the hallway, flapping to keep more or less in place, Ember watched a massive black beast prowl after the vamp, red hatred glowing in his eyes.
Help had arrived.
Seke rushed after Cole, giving directions to his team as he wrapped his arms around the humans and escorted them away from the burning phoenix and mauling hellhounds both. “Cole, sniff out any other vampires hiding in distant rooms and herd them toward the flames or your mouth. Either outcome is sufficient.”
The hound took off, streaking beneath Ember, leaving a trail of water and a putrid stench behind him.
“Raven,” the captain said next, addressing the black bird that circled over his head. “Keep watch in the foyer, and make sure to catch any other vampires trying to flee.”
He looked behind him at someone Ember couldn’t see. “Gunhilde, head to the cell and get Enid.”
A flash of metal zipped down the hall from behind Ember, zig-zagging between plumes of smoke that billowed with each beat of massive black feathered wings that were way too big to really extend.
“Torgny, take the humans outside to safety. Then, circle the grounds from overhead and make sure we didn’t miss any other exits.”
Seke helped the scared humans mount a large, black horse they couldn’t see. The horse took off, nearly losing his new passengers, right before Ember descended to where the humans had been a moment earlier.
She landed on the ground, tucking her wings, and watched as the horse disappeared down a corridor toward a rectangle of daylight and lightening skies beyond. A raven squawked in annoyance as the massive equine barreled past her.
Finally, Seke addressed Ember. “You have done well, Ember. Very clever plan. Please, rest now, and complete your resurrection. I am sure we will be able to find some exquisite ice cream once we are through here.” He winked.
But she couldn’t rest. They were missing someone. Ember cocked her head, crackling and smoldering as the flames began to die down and flakes of ash and soot slipped from her body. She couldn’t shift to ask the god her question until she was completely cool to save her human skin from burning.
Seke understood, nodding. “Aria chose to stay in the pit with her mother until Gunhilde could rescue her from the pit. She is also keeping an eye on the underground tunnels in case any vampires attempt to escape that way. I will be going back there to help her, once I am sure you are okay. I will leave you in Brenna’s care.”
Ember dipped her beak.
Having been given her affirmation of understanding, the Egyptian god turned and sprinted back out the door leading into daybreak. Ember had never seen the god run so fast, a touch of panic to his pace. She flew down to the lobby and landed on a table, toppling an old statue to the marble floor. There, she stayed, exhaustion setting in. She did need to rest.
A black-haired woman appeared just as her eyes were drifting shut, but it was just Raven. “I’ve got your back. You can nap.”
Ember gave a throaty squawk.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll find some ice cream when we get out of this godsforsaken dumpster fire. You’ve earned it.”
30
“Mom, just let them pass, okay?”
“What do you mean? No, of course not. I won’t.” She was vehement but malnourished and frail. Maybe she had seen what I had, and maybe she hadn’t, but either way, I needed her to listen.
“I need you to go back to your mattress for just another few minutes, okay? All of this will have been for nothing if you die now. I’ll be fine, promise. Gunhilde will be arriving to escort you out of here shortly.”
“Gunhilde?” she asked, seeming to reminisce with that one word.
I smiled, grabbing tightly to her small hands clenched around the steel bars that hindered my entrance. We needed the vamps to remove it for us, and the only way they would was if they were attempting to escape the raging fire overhead… or to get to me.
A hissing noise sounded from the hole at the top of the cell as vampires began to pour into the tiny cell in a last-ditch effort to flee the inferno blazing through their home.
With one last pleading look, my mother scurried back to her mattress, flinging up a corner to dive underneath just as the first bloodsucker slammed into the bars mere inches from where I stood.
“Oh, jeez. Funny seeing you here! Was it getting a little heated up there?” I made doe eyes and my best bimbo stare to accompany the taunt.
“Banshee!” the bald man hissed, pulling back against the grate that stood between us with massively inhuman strength. Several more creatures began piling up behind him while the steel creaked and snapped as he pulled.
Crap. This was a bad idea.
“Catch me if you can, bloodsucker!”
I turned on my heel and sprinted as fast as I could through the putrid water, though the light diminished the further I went. Away from the cell, from my mother. They’d follow me. The prize was too tempting to pass up. A moment later, a crash reverberated through the tunnel at a deafening decibel, announcing that they’d succeeded in removing the only obstacle between us.
I wondered if vampires could see in the dark. Probably better than I could, at any rate. I needed a plan. I’d need to use my other senses to guide me as best I could under duress, anyway. I mean, I guessed this was what I’d been trained for, right? I’d find out soon if I’d passed the class.
Hopefully, my mother was still safely ensconced beneath the soggy mattress and now free to begin her own escape with Gunhilde. They could follow me through the sewers without pursuit instead of having to head back through the flames. She would be free. And if I couldn’t get free of the tunnels, at least my mother finally could. And the team — they’d be fine. They never really wanted me anyway. They’d even have a functioning banshee should they decide they liked the idea.
“Nowhere for
you to go, youngling,” the baldie taunted from behind, the voice bouncing menacingly through the tunnel. Other jeers joined the first, telling me that there were now several creatures in pursuit. I didn’t think they knew this system any better than I did, so when I came to a fork, I picked up on the echoes seeming to filter outward, away from me, like a T, and turned left and prayed.
When I didn’t knock myself into oblivion by running face-first into concrete, I assumed my assertion to be correct. The tunnel had split. I stopped just out of sight, reaching to pull the knives from both my boot and my bra. Palming the smaller dagger in my left hand, I prepared to use the large, serrated hunting knife on the first thing to turn that corner.
I only hoped I’d hit it.
When one of your senses is out of commission, rely on the others. Just as a team would adapt to one fewer, you can still make it without sight.
Not more than a breath later, baldie made his appearance. I aimed upward toward where I heard hissed breathing, praying my aim would be true. I felt my big-ass blade embed in his throat. Gurgling up his stolen blood, he fell to his knees when I jerked back the weapon just in time for the next pursuer to attack.
Using the downed vamp to my advantage, a physical block to the new attacker, I waited for her to stumble over his body. I heard her growl, felt the tips of her fingers on my skin, using those indicators to gauge her location. The thud and subsequent splash, mere feet from me, and the fact that her nails had hit me in a downward arc led me to believe she had at least tipped forward over her comrade.
I thrust my arm in an arc I hoped would push the smaller dagger through the back of her neck. Her strangled yelp told me I’d at least hit something. Yanking hard to the side, I tried to sever the spinal cord.
Two down.
I turned and fled farther down the new section, hoping I’d gained enough time to make it out. I didn’t know if I was lying to myself. I could still feel them behind me, gaining, enraged that two of their brethren had fallen.