by brett hicks
Lyra nodded in agreement.
“All petty disagreements will be cast aside, until our streets are safe again. My pack will help your people hide. That is something we shifters know more about. I will come with you. Jaden, you and Mark shall remain with the pack. Get them underground. And, don’t use anything that can be traced back to our pack, or any land connected to us.”
Rachelle stepped to my side, and she picked up the katana in the dark-blue sheathe. She studied the sword for a long moment.
“This is a blade forged of light fae magic, infused with magic. This blade is indestructible, and it is meant to be wielded by a succubus. Your mother once showed me it’s twin. I didn’t tell you at the time, but this arrived for you of its own accord. It was a gift from Kimiko. Lyra did order all the rest, the kuna blades, and the throwing stars.”
Rachelle gave a ceremonial full waist bow, and she presented the blade to me with outstretched hands. My eyes widened at the display of deep respect, and the rarity of the gift.
I touched my hand to the sheathe, and I felt a warmth roll across my fingers. Magic, light, energy. Only after, did I realize that the blade had lit the whole room up, upon my touch. I was far too entranced right at this very moment to care. I felt the subtlety, but the torrents of raw power focused through the blade.
This blade is like your life personified…Mother…
Eighteen:
The first waves of angry Virginians had gathered before we even managed to pull out of the packland. They had clearly made for the closest pack, just to stir the pot. It took some evasive driving, and a little bit of well-placed icy magic from Rachelle, to shake loose the mob. I looked back on the shrinking view of the packland. I worried deeply for Jaden, Mark, and all the others.
“They’ll be fine. This is not my pack’s first rodeo. We have been besieged before, more than once.”
Lyra’s tone was confident, and matter-of-fact. Sam looked at her in wide eyed curiosity.
“This has happened before? Where the hell were the police?”
Rachelle snarked, “Right beside them, throwing flaming bottles into windows. Not exactly something you want in a police report.”
Her tone was sassy, but even Sam could tell that Rachelle wasn’t joking!
“This is insanity, I mean, I get people being angry.”
Ellison shook his head and he clapped the detective on the shoulder.
“You were willing to throw an innocent girl into lock up, with hardened criminals. Just pointing out the facts. You were just on the other side of this mob a few days ago my boy.”
There was nothing sinister or accusatory in Ellison’s tone.
“He is an ally, so we will bury the past. We have far too many threats at our heels now.”
That was Lyra, Rachelle nodded in agreement. She passed a knowing look to me, and I gave her a little smile of comprehension. I love how we can speak without even using our words, or thoughts!
“We need to find the ghouls and kill them first. Preferably, after they tell us who they’re working for.”
I spoke with a steeliness in my tone I was borrowing from my mother, in hopes that it would strengthen our chances of success.
‘I could really use your help right now mother!’
I was met with a deafening silence. I felt my fingers curling around the blade she had gifted me. Magic thrummed through my veins like electric lines.
I guess I will just have to make this happen on my own power…
We approached the end of Canal Street, past one of the clubs Lyra and the others perform at on a regular basis. There was storm-drain and sewer access down here. It was within the projected entry-point of the possible ghoul nesting area.
We received a fair bit of weary looks, considering we were packing enough fire-power, and melee power, to put us into Braveheart, or Rambo. Sam had accepted an automatic rifle of military origins with a shake of his head. He seemed to be surprised, but not, overly so.
“Let’s get this show on the road, before the natives decide to get restless.”
Rachelle spoke from my side, and I waited for Ellison to pry the rusty metal hatch-like door open. With a loud bang, and a crashing sound, the hatch flew open. The smell behind the door was rancid, to say the very least. Lyra swore to herself and she stepped in first.
She was our nose for this search-and-destroy mission. Apparently, Lyra had a nasty run-in with a small pack of ghouls early in her days as an apex. She wouldn’t give me details, it sounded bloody, considering her grim tone, and how her body language was.
“Keep tight in formation. They will try to divide us and pick us off once we are weakened. They are smart hunters, they will try to wound, and hobble first.”
Lyra spoke in a hushed tone, but loud enough for Sam to hear her clearly. I could feel his well of emotions running wild. He seemed to be on edge, yet his focus, and his gun hand remained steady. This wasn’t his first time in the field, and he seemed to be channeling his raw emotions, to further heighten his awareness.
“Do you have anything yet?”
Ellison asked, he was bringing up the rear, serving as our vampiric lookout. Rachelle was flanking me, we stood in the center, with Sam between us. We were keeping our human in the most secure location, blanketed in supernaturals. Our bodies could take a very bloody beating, and keep on, but we knew his wouldn’t.
“Old scents, nothing too fresh yet. I will keep following this route to the junction. From there, we either head towards the waste-disposal, or we head towards the city’s reservoir. My money is on the waste disposal.”
Lyra spoke from ahead of me.
“It could be either one. It really depends on who chose this hideaway.”
I spoke quietly.
“You are referring to their mysterious benefactor?”
Rachelle asked me, and I nodded to her.
“Yes, they might figure someone would look for ghouls towards the stink of sewage. So, they might in fact be using the area closest to the reservoir.”
“Both are within our likely area of nesting, so we will try to check both, if we have to. We cannot leave this tunnel empty-handed. The stakes are much too high out there now!”
Ellison said, his tone was calm, but firm. He was likely worried about his clan. He had been focused on our issues, and not on the political maneuvering of humans with agendas. This latest news conference had him on edge. He seemed like a man burning with some grim desire now. There was a darkness in his wrath, something I never wanted to experience the sharp end of. This was the master vampire poking his head out from behind the human visage.
***
We trekked onward, we had hit the junction. We had one path headed east, and one west. Lyra swore to herself in tangent.
“There are scents in both directions. Each fresh, each heady, more than a few. This is a full pack, or more. It could even be a damn colony!”
I cut my gaze to Rachelle after Lyra finished.
“What is a colony?”
I failed to keep the worry from my voice. Rachelle shook her head slightly.
“Trust me when I say, you do not want to know! Pray, that this is just a large pack, if she’s right, then we are all dead already.”
My throat tightened under the ominous warning, and Rachelle’s sudden abandonment of hope for survival.
“Is there a place I can get a signal out?”
Sam asked from beside me. Lyra looked back in curiosity.
“What is on your mind?”
“Well, I figured, we could call it in. I am a ranking police detective. If I phone in a hot-bed of supernatural activity connected to the murders, then they will send in S.W.A.T. There would be more assurance that we survive, and that this threat is eliminated.”
Rachelle shot a look to Ellison, they both seemed to communicate without words. They were probably strategizing telepathically.
“That might work to our advantage, in more than one way.”
Ellison said, his voice so
unded a little creepy. He was concocting something, something sinister in that master vampire head of his. For some reason, that didn’t seem to bother me, considering my position in this current witch-hunt.
“There should be a manhole about a block this way, we can get you there, but you will need to be fast. If the whole point of this, was to rile humans against supernaturals, they likely have an in with your department. They will know where we are.”
Rachelle smiled devilishly at her.
“That would no longer matter to us. Too many humans would be privy to the truth by then. Just make sure they know not to shoot the vampires, or the kitty, please Sam.”
Rachelle’s voice was almost sarcastic. She seemed to be cool, even in the worst situations. Sam nodded his understanding.
“Yeah, no problem, besides, you’re all witnesses. I will need to be able to count on you all for any hearings this might cause later.”
Both Jameson’s exchanged a calculating look, and Ellison smiled winningly.
“We shall be there, with bells on.”
Even Sam seemed a little creeped out by Ellison now—intuitive man!
Lyra lead us east, towards the closest manhole. Ellison leapt up the distance to the top rung of the ladder with a single easy leap. He pushed the heavy cover off with the ease a human would use to stretch their arm.
“It’s open, Rachelle you stay behind the good detective, just in case of an accident. We must keep our most precious human ally alive, at all costs.”
Sam muttered to himself, “Words I never thought I would live to hear from a damn Jameson…”
Lyra snorted, but kept her watchful eyes, and nose out. I was looking back the direction we had come. I felt a stirring in the distance. It was like ripples on some invisible field, or pond. Power circulated through the tunnel.
“Did you feel that?”
I looked to Lyra. Her eyes were glowing a feral crimson at my question. I could feel the cat was ready to break free.
“No, what did you feel?”
Her voice was guttural, harsh, like it had been the last time she talked to me while shifted. She was not fully human anymore. The apex alpha was begging to be released now.
“Magic, I think, power, like ripples in water…”
My voice trailed off, her growls were feral, vicious and promised death.
“You might want to hurry it up Detective, I think we have incoming!”
I shouted up to them. I could hear Sam speaking on his cell. He was reciting his badge number and repeating all the facts. He was giving our current location.
“…Hell, I am leaving my cell on, up on the road, track it to the manhole, and get S.W.A.T. down here, now! We have multiple hostiles coming in! They are grey-skinned and look like bats mixed with humans. I know how this sounds, but it’s the truth!”
I could hear the pause in the woman’s voice on the other end.
“…Can have a few units out there to investigate in ten-minutes.”
Sam huffed in annoyance, and he slid his phone onto the road above, while muttering a few choice curses.
Growling erupted from the end of the tunnel junction. I felt, as much as heard as Lyra shifted fully into her massive were-leopard form. She was a black leopard, or a panther, depending on who you asked.
She lunged at something still invisible to me, but I drew my blade, with it, the tunnel lit around me. Magic like a bright white-light stunned the grey-skinned bat-creatures for just a moment. They were everywhere! Lyra had two as big as small men pinned and she was ripping into the throat of one of them.
There were at least twenty more behind them. They seemed to regain themselves in the next moment. They made harsh, high-pitched shrieking sounds as they rushed me. I swore, and I felt my sword hand dip in response, and my blade raked flesh with a practiced stroke, well beyond my normal.
The familiarity of the weight in my hand transcended any practice I had with Rachelle, or Lyra. This was part of my mother’s memory made manifest inside me. I ducked as large seven-inch claws slashed at my neck.
Nineteen:
Under the glow of the blade, the grey-skinned bat-like humans were reluctant. Their eyes were crimson flashes of magic in the darkness beyond my light. They were hunched over, but still stood over five-feet tall. They had long reptilian tails, and huge fangs, somewhat reminiscent of vampire fangs.
Had these beasts really began their lives as humans? Had these creatures once been like Rachelle, or Ellison?!
My mind spun, and my senses were nearly overtaken by the rank odor of their bodies. Fresh blood and bile mixed with their potent scent. I heard the leaps, as Ellison jumped down with Sam, and Rachelle leapt down beside me. She had a glaive in her left hand, and her right held what looked like a Roman gladius blade, about eighteen-inches long.
She flung the razor-sharp circular blade, and it slashed into the throat of one of the recovered ghouls. Gunshots erupted from behind me, as Sam opened on the nearing horde. The rest lunged for us with a maddened frenzied assault.
I bent away, as claws came for me again, and I severed claws, and hacked into torsos. My world seemed to dim to the motions of cut, dodge, repeat. Rachelle pulled her glaive back by some fine metal cord attached and she threw it again, latching deep into the skull of another ghoul.
Lyra was a blur of fur, fangs, and sharp claws. Her body never seemed to still, she danced in a feline circuit of death, and destruction. Her roars seemed to stagger some of the weaker ghouls, her shifter magic rolled and surged around us. She swept her claws near Sam, and a ghoul approaching from behind was opened down the center. Her crimson eyes met his for a moment, and she was back into the fray.
Ellison was like a shadow, fighting from the sides, corners, or the edges. He seemed to pick through ghouls at their weak-points. He used our group actions as his cover to sneak and flank. He kept fading from sight, bleeding into the shadows, something I had never thought possible, even for a master vampire.
Rachelle, seemed to mirror my style, she approached the battle head on with her steel. She danced, she twirled with a cat-like grace that could give Lyra a run for her money! Her every cut was a well-practiced stroke. Her masterful art slashed through ghouls as if they offered no resistance.
I ducked as a ghoul raked its claws, aiming for my throat. Another slashed at my right leg I barely managed to pull it back in time. I buried my blade to the hilt in the first ghoul’s chest, and I drew a kuna, and threw it with a steady aim latching into the left eye of the second.
They shrieked, and I noted, that despite the number we had seen at the start f this battle, there were many more now. There numbers were not diminishing! I juked two clawed-hands and I yelled to Rachelle, “We need some more light. Did you bring those UV lamps?”
She slashed and hacked. She managed a nod.
“Yes, but it’s not going to burn them up or anything. Light is just a minor irritant to their skin.”
“I’ll take whatever I can get. Besides, light, means less claws in the dark aimed for us.”
“Agreed,” She said, as she grunted, and hacked into another ghoul.
“I’ll cover you.”
Ellison appeared like smoke beside his sister. She threw her glaive again, and she caught a ghoul in the chest. He seemed to skid to a stop but was hacked off at the neck by Ellison. Rachelle fumbled into her pack, and she fished out a small UV lamp. She switched it on, and the purple light filled the tunnel. She tossed it ahead of us. She reached back into her pack, and found the next lamp, she threw that one behind us.
Ghouls began to shriek in agony now. Rachelle pulled her glaive free of the beheaded ghoul, and she began to dodge more claws from enraged ghouls.
“I think you just pissed them off more Melony.”
Ellison pointed out as he hacked an arm aiming for Sam. Sam unloaded automatic fire into the heads, and chests of three ghouls approaching Lyra from behind.
“Not the right time for an I-told-you-so.”
I sassed t
o him, I dodged, but a claw hacked into my right shoulder. I grunted in pain, it burned, but the wound was nothing compared to the pain I had experienced in Maddox’s dungeon, or the pain of being electrocuted until my skin burned.
I slashed down, severing the offending claw, but two more replaced it. I swore to myself in tangent. We were quickly being overrun, and we wouldn’t be able to hold out forever.
“Ellison take Sam and get the hell out of here. You need to get a few of these bodies out with you. They are our smoking gun. You have to stop this witch-hunt, or a lot of innocent people are going to die, on both sides!”
“I’m not leaving you down here!”
Rachelle’s voice was visceral, rage filled, and primal.
“Babe, I can’t leave Lyra, and Lyra is way too deep in them. We need to split the party! Go, help get the evidence, and the police detective above ground! Hurry, before we lose access to the manhole! They are going to cut us off! I will buy you some time.”
Rachelle’s power rushed around, the temperature plummeted. I felt icy tendrils flash-freeze the floor of the tunnel ahead of us. I back-peddled, avoiding the expanse of the freeze.
“There, they are rooted for now! Hurry, no one’s getting left behind!”
I didn’t have time to be impressed, there were more sounds clattering up the tunnels behind the frozen ghouls. I rushed over to Lyra’s side, the apex shifter was jumping around a pair of ghouls, I came in and hobbled one from the side, and she pounced on the next one, snapping its neck in one crushing twist of her head.
“Lyra get your ass up that manhole!”
(Words you never think you will ever say to your best friend!)
She flicked her eyes to me and she nodded, a deeply human gesture for a huge nearly six-foot cat. I swiped my blade across a pair of flanking ghouls, and Lyra shifted back to her light-brown skin. She leapt up after Ellison, and she was on the street in less than two seconds. Granted, she was now giving the whole of downtown Richmond a very hot, and smelly peep-show!
Torrents of ice shot past my face, and glacial spikes impaled several ghouls in a line. I marveled at Rachelle’s hidden power. I had seen it three times now, but it was still unbelievable. This was the power of an elemental druid. Something she was born with, something that had yet to fully awaken before her change to vampire.