A Flicker of Steel

by Steve McHugh

  “Okay, be ready to go on my order,” Layla said.

  “Going to blow something up?” Remy asked with a grin.

  Layla winked at him. “I’ll see how it goes. Just how bad is Thunder Bay?”

  “You know Nergal has already taken control of Sault Ste. Marie and Copper Harbor, right? So once they have Thunder Bay, they’ll have both sides of Lake Superior secured. Persephone said that the airport at Thunder Bay is destroyed. The local news is reporting nothing; it’s as if it’s not even happening. Thankfully, the city was in the process of finishing off its evacuation when it happened. Even so, there are hundreds of people still leaving, or trapped inside the city.”

  “Okay, we’ll get going,” Layla said. “You go get the others ready. Be careful—there are CCTV cameras all over the place, and the Sheriff and his people work for Nergal.”

  “I got in okay. I’ll get out. I’m just a cute little fox, after all.” Remy ran down the alley he’d appeared from, almost vanishing from view after a few meters.

  “He’s a lot more than just a fox/man hybrid,” Caleb said.

  “Yes, he’s been learning what he’s capable of. The vanishing trick takes some getting used to, but it comes in handy.”

  The pair walked over to the warehouse, which was easily visible well before they reached it, as were the armed guards standing at the entrance.

  “This isn’t going to be fun,” Caleb said.

  “It never is with these people,” Layla told him. “But it’s necessary to get our friends back, and to me that’s more important than my own safety. If I wanted safety, I’d have never joined Tommy’s organization two years ago. I’d have run away and hidden in some tropical paradise.”

  “They’d have found you eventually.”

  “I know. Besides, I’m not very good at remaining hidden.”

  Caleb took another step, and Layla put her hand on his arm to stop him. “We do this quietly,” she said. “Get in, release our allies, and let the rest of the group wipe out anything standing between us and freedom. No going off on a blood rage, or something equally stupid.”

  Caleb sighed. “I do love you, you know. I’m a monster. I murder and torture and revel in the blood I spill. Whatever part of me once hated it, now lives for battle. Lives to bring justice to those who never seem to pay for their crimes. But I never stopped loving you and your mom. I never once wanted either of you hurt by what I was doing. If there’s a hell, I know I’m going there. I know it, and I’ve accepted it. I didn’t kill for self-defense; sometimes I did, but mostly it was for selfish reasons, because I needed to. I wish I’d been a better father to you when you needed me.”

  Layla nodded slowly. “You trained me to hurt people, to be able to defend myself from attacks. To do things children shouldn’t be able to do.”

  “Because I knew my enemies would come for me. Or I thought they would. But I couldn’t figure out how, or when, or what would happen if they did. Your mother disagreed with the training, but never tried to stop me. I fear that you were right about her being afraid of me. I was too self-absorbed to see it. Too clouded. I was not a good father, or a good husband. I did what I thought was right.”

  Layla stared at her father for several seconds. “Unbelievable. You still don’t get it, do you? You did what you thought was right? You’re still making excuses for being a murderous asshole. You’re still making excuses for your actions. You killed because you wanted to kill.”

  Caleb shrugged. “I needed those criminals to get the justice the courts never gave them. They needed to be removed from the gene pool. They needed to be removed to make things safe for law abiding citizens.”

  “I get that, Dad. I get that many of the people you killed were bad people. But some of them were just small-time nothings. You were indiscriminate.”

  “So if I’d killed murderers, rapists, and people who ruined lives, that would have been okay? But going after thieves, people who do petty stuff, that’s wrong?”

  “You killed people, Dad. You did it because you liked it. Their crimes were irrelevant. They just needed to have gotten away with one.”

  “You kill monsters, too. All of you do. What’s different?”

  Layla was about to tell her father that she didn’t gun down unarmed suspects in the middle of the street, or slowly torture someone to death because they hit someone with their car, when two police cars pulled up beside them. Four deputies got out, along with several blood elves, who quickly pushed Caleb to the ground and placed a new sorcerer’s band on his wrist.

  “If you do anything, we kill him,” one of the blood elves said to Layla.

  Layla raised her hands. “You men okay with working with monsters?” she asked the deputies.

  “You’re the real monsters here,” one of them said. “You murder humans. You make us afraid to live our lives. These blood elves are on the side of righteousness.”

  A second deputy put a hand on his partner’s arm to calm him as one of the blood elves forced Layla to the ground, placing silver cuffs and a sorcerer’s band on her wrists. He removed the Glock from the holster on her hip, ejected the magazine, and passed it to another deputy.

  “Nergal wishes to see you,” the blood elf rasped in her ear. “We’ve been watching you since you entered the town. Where is your fox friend?”

  “He ran off,” Layla said with a sigh. This wasn’t exactly how she’d imagined getting into Nergal’s compound, but it seemed like that was where she was headed.

  She was picked up and pushed, back first, against the wall. “Nergal will force you to help,” the blood elf said.

  “How many humans do you kill a day?” She asked it loud enough for the deputies to hear. “You didn’t know? Blood elves eat people. You people are idiots.”

  “It’s okay,” Caleb said. “Sooner or later people like these will discover the folly of their actions. Hopefully while one of the blood elves is elbow-deep in their chest cavity.”

  One of the deputies looked a little green at the suggestion, and Layla wondered if her father was right. The human deputies seemed to have no idea what they were sharing their cars with. They thought the blood elves were their protectors, and she didn’t think it would be long before Nergal unleashed the elves on the town of Winterborn as a reward for loyal service.

  17

  The second Layla and Caleb stepped inside the warehouse, her sorcerer’s band was removed. But Layla’s powers remained blocked and she looked around for the runes responsible as they moved through the building. The blood elves marched them up to the offices above, and Layla took note of how quiet it all was. Apart from a few guards and blood elves, there was barely anyone inside the warehouse.

  The blood elves opened an office door without knocking and motioned for their prisoners to enter. Unlike the ones she’d seen at the prison, and in the rest of Winterborn, these elves used rifles and submachine guns. They had handguns in holsters on their hips and wore military tactical gear instead of the leather armor she’d gotten used to seeing on Nergal’s people.

  “They had to modernize,” a man said from the end of the office. He was looking out through the windows at the end of the room, watching the few people who remained in his warehouse. He turned and smiled. “My name is Nergal.”

  Layla watched as her father took a step forward. “You murdered my wife.”

  “No, Elias did that,” Nergal said, as if speaking to a child. “I ordered her and your daughter’s kidnapping. Elias no longer works for me. Mostly due to him being dead.”

  “I still hold you responsible,” Caleb told him in a cold, detached tone.

  “Frankly, I don’t care,” Nergal replied. “You’re wearing a sorcerer’s band, and you’re surrounded by armed guards. You won’t get within ten feet of me. And you’re only about twelve feet away now.”

  “I’m not wearing anything,” Layla said. “What’s stopping me?”

  “Well, I’m thousands of years old. I’m stronger, faster, and considerably more powerf
ul than you. And, more importantly, I’m not about to be beaten down by some woman with delusions of grandeur. Irkalla couldn’t kill me, so you certainly can’t.”

  “Why remove my band?” Layla asked.

  “The runes work just as well for your powers. Your father’s, too, but frankly I can’t take the risk with him, so he keeps his band on. I’m not so concerned about you.”

  “So, what now?” Caleb asked. “We just work for you?”

  Nergal activated an intercom and two blood elves walked into the room. “I think it would be in your best interests to do as you’re told, yes.” He nodded toward the blood elf closest to Layla, who then stamped on the back of her knee, forcing her to the floor, where he kicked her in the back, sending her to the ground.

  Nergal raised a hand and the blood elf stopped. “You see: I have a great many ways I can force you to help me. I was just about to leave when I got word of your capture. I would have had Kristin bring you in, but she appears to have headed out of town, toward Red Rock. I’m sure you’ll see her soon enough, Layla.”

  “So I help you, or you hurt my daughter?” Caleb asked.

  “No, you help us, or I feed your daughter to my blood elves. After Kristin breaks her legs. I think you’ll find the sight of blood elves devouring someone you love fascinating. And should you decide to call my bluff, I assure you that I could keep your daughter alive for a very long time once the elves start. Maybe we’ll remove a hand first, or her whole arm? What do you think?”

  Caleb just stood and stared at Nergal, who walked around to the front of his desk and loomed above Layla. One of the blood elves forced her to stretch out her arm, and Nergal placed his foot just above the elbow, applying enough weight to make Layla yell in pain.

  “Enough,” Caleb said. “I’ll help you.”

  Nergal walked over to Caleb and punched him in the kidney, sending him to the floor. “Just remember who I am the next time you decide to wait before answering me. Both of you will be taken to your new homes,” Nergal said, sounding cheerful. “I hope you enjoy your time with us.”

  Layla and Caleb were led out of the office by the blood elves who had brought them in and back down onto the warehouse floor.

  “Nergal had runes drawn on his wall,” Layla whispered. “They’re stopping my power.”

  “You can read runes?” Caleb asked.

  “One of my spirits is from the realm where the scrolls were created,” Layla continued. “Gyda can read some rudimentary runes. The ones in his office count as rudimentary. Someone with little experience did them quickly. Presumably someone Nergal told to get on with it. They work, but they’re not going to stop anyone with real power.”

  “Nergal must know that.”

  “I doubt he cares,” Layla said. “He’s arrogant, and I don’t think he’s all that concerned about someone with power coming at him.”

  “His arrogance will be his undoing,” Caleb said forcefully.

  “Stop talking,” the blood elf closest to them said, shoving Layla in the back. “Over to the elevator, now. You’re going to the crypt.”

  “This place has a crypt?” Layla asked.

  “It’s what we call the maze of corridors below,” the blood elf told her with an evil smile. “Once down there, you don’t come back.”

  “You came back,” Layla pointed out.

  The blood elf looked confused. “Prisoners don’t come out. We can come and go as we like.”

  “I think they’re mocking us,” the second blood elf said with a slight sneer. “I think they believe they’re better than us.”

  “Better than blood elves? Never,” Layla said.

  “I had never seen a blood elf until you attacked the prison,” Caleb said. “Didn’t even know that other realms existed. You like chaos, violence, and blood, and the ability to make people afraid of you. I sort of wish I’d known you were around before I went to prison. I would have enjoyed hunting you.”

  The closest blood elf leaned in toward Caleb. “I would have enjoyed you trying.”

  Layla tensed, wondering if her father was going to launch himself at the blood elf and start a fight, but instead he just turned and stepped into the now open elevator.

  Layla and Caleb stood at the rear of the large elevator while the two blood elves waited by the doors as they closed. One of the elves pushed a button on the console beside him and the lift began to move down.

  “You’re going to like it here,” the elf closest to Layla said with a laugh.

  “Question for you,” Layla said. “Who did your runes?”

  The blood elves looked at one another. “Abaddon,” one of them almost whispered.

  “The Abaddon?” Layla asked, noticing the recognition in her father’s eyes.

  “I find that hard to believe,” Rosa said from beside Layla. “Did you know there are no runes in the elevator, or the elevator shaft? Sort of seems like an oversight to me. Not exactly the kind of thing a thousands-of-years-old necromancer like Abaddon would do.”

  Layla looked at Rosa, and then back at the blood elves. “Sorry, guys, but I think your tour is going to have to wait.” Thin, razor-sharp spears of metal struck out from either side of the lift, puncturing the skulls of the blood elves, killing each of them instantly.

  “How long have you been able to do that?” Caleb asked.

  “Long enough,” Layla told him as the lift stopped and the doors opened.

  “There are marks out there,” Rosa said. “I can almost feel them.”

  “Me too,” Layla said.

  “You’re talking to your spirits, aren’t you?” Caleb asked.

  “Why would Abaddon post such sloppily-drawn runes in the warehouse, and nothing in the elevator?” Layla asked, ignoring her father. “It seems like something that someone with her power would be able to correct. From what I’ve heard about her, sloppiness isn’t in her vocabulary.”

  “She wanted a place she could access her power,” Gyda said from the corner of the elevator.

  “You’re talking to me now?” Layla asked.

  “If you die, I have to wait around for another person to take control of the scroll. And next time, they might be someone I really dislike.”

  Layla stepped out of the elevator into the gray corridor and the spirits vanished, along with her connection to her power. The dim lighting was enough to see the rune on the ceiling. It was about a foot long and drawn in bright-blue paint.

  “Okay, there’s no way you can’t see that,” Layla said. “Is Abaddon just trying to see how much she can piss Nergal off?”

  “It does seem like she’s not all that bothered about him noticing.”

  Layla removed a dagger from the belt of one of the dead blood elves and threw it up into the ceiling, destroying the rune. Her power immediately returned to her.

  Caleb and Layla searched the maze of corridors for any of Layla’s companions and found nothing except empty cells, some of which smelled of blood and death. She marked each one they searched by partially crushing their metal doors. They found Fenix and Jared just as the alarm went off throughout the complex. They were in a single cell, and both of them looked like they’d been through hell, with bloodied and bruised faces.

  Jared and Layla embraced. “It’s good to see you,” he said.

  “I thought we had a date tomorrow. I didn’t want to get stood up,” she told him.

  “There are two dead blood elves in the elevator,” Layla told them. “Both have weapons, and this place is currently under assault. Get what you need and get topside. I’ll find anyone else and join you.”

  “What about your dad?” Fenix asked, wincing as he got to his feet.

  “He stays with me,” Layla said.

  “Your trust in me is adorable,” Caleb said.

  Layla ignored him. “You two going to be okay?”

  Both nodded. “They wanted me to give them intel on the Greenland compound, but I couldn’t do it,” Fenix said. “I think our blood curse mark makes it impossible some
how.”

  “We’ll figure it out.”

  “They asked me the same thing,” Jared said. “Like Fenix, I couldn’t say anything. They killed the others. No one could tell them anything, so they killed them. There’s no one else to save, Layla. I’m sorry.”

  Layla kissed Jared on the cheek. “It’s okay. We’ll get you both home.”

  Jared rested his head on Layla’s shoulder, and Layla hugged him tight. “I didn’t think they would kill the other prisoners,” he almost whispered. “Diana is gone.”

  “Diana is with us,” Layla said. “I’ll explain later, but she’s fine.”

  Jared smiled. “Good.”

  “We’ll stop Nergal and his people,” Layla promised, releasing Jared. “Diana and co. are probably tearing this place apart at the moment.”

  The four of them went back to the elevator as quickly as they could. Layla used the console to select the warehouse floor, and they were soon traveling upward.

  “I expected more guards,” Fenix said.

  “They’re attacking Thunder Bay,” Layla told him. “There seems to only be a handful of people left here.”

  “Nergal hates Hades, doesn’t he?” Jared said.

  Caleb stared at Jared for several uncomfortable seconds before he nodded. “Nergal wants to be the strongest, but he knows he isn’t. He can’t accept the idea that he can be beaten, but deep down, he knows. He just won’t admit it to himself. Nergal is frightened of Hades. I’ve seen people like him before. They know they’re not the ‘baddest’, so they do everything they can to prove how scary they are.”

  “Nergal isn’t going to enjoy meeting Hades in combat,” Fenix said. “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather fight less than Hades. Maybe Persephone. She might be more powerful than Hades.”

  “She’s upstairs,” Layla said.

  “Then we might live through this,” Fenix said with a smile.

  “That’s the plan,” Layla told him as the elevator stopped and the doors opened to a world of violence and death.

  The bodies of blood elves and human guards were scattered around the outside of the elevator, and the sounds of battle raged throughout the warehouse. Layla spotted Diana—in full werebear beast form—tearing into several blood elves, who were powerless to stop her rampage.