“I’m going to unchain you now, and then I need to move Alana.” I reached above his head to the rebar. It was easier than trying to pry the cuff off his leg.
Right as my palm touched the metal, a cold, bony hand wrapped around my ankle.
I had to resist a very strong urge to kick him off and quiet the growling wolf in my head. Instead of reacting, I angled my head down to meet his gaze, my eyes holding a question.
“We have waited … for you.” His eyes were now a clear muted blue.
I pried the rebar open just enough to unhook the chain. Then I stepped back, breaking his grip on me. He let go without a fight. “What exactly do you know about me?” It was hard to believe this emaciated vamp, left in a crypt to rot for centuries, would know anything about me.
“It was foretold…” he whispered.
“But you attacked me when I first arrived. You didn’t think I was anything special then,” I pointed out. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
He said one word in Russian. “Sila.” When my expression didn’t change, he said another. “Strength.”
16
I waited for Yuri to elaborate on his comment. “Okay…” I said when he remained silent. “I guess we can choose to continue this discussion at a later date.” I glanced around the cell. “I need to get out of here,” I muttered.
I strode over to Alana.
Dragging her along the ground would just be wrong, so I bent down to pick her up. It was the only decent thing to do. She weighed next to nothing and thankfully did not stir. As I carried her to Yuri, the end of the chain still attached to her forehead clattered along the ground. Nice.
I lowered her carefully into his open arms.
His face said it all. This was his bride. “I’m sorry, you know”—I pointed to her head once I deposited her in his lap—“about her wound. She wasn’t very reasonable and I had to stop her.” And a metal plate to the forehead did the trick. “I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out, but you may want to act fast and do it while she’s still unconscious.”
“She will … heal…” he said quietly. “Go now. They will be back soon…”
I headed over to the corner.
The entire cell was full of dirt. I knelt, plunging my hands into the ground. About a foot down I hit wood. It was some kind of trapdoor. “Do you use this often?” I asked, glancing over at him. “It doesn’t seem like a super-duper idea to have a permanent escape hatch in the floor of a prison cell.”
“It is not nice … below,” he answered. “You must … beware.”
That sounded ominous.
My wolf snarled. After the creatures we’d encountered fighting Selene, I wasn’t looking forward to meeting any new surprises. “Care to shed a little more light on that before I head down into the depths of despair?”
“Trows,” he answered.
“Trolls?”
Gads! I didn’t want to fight a troll.
He shook his head. “No, Trows. The Queen employs them … to keep intruders out and … us in.”
“You mean like fairies?” I replied, flipping quickly through my mind for my limited knowledge of a Trow. If I was right, I had a vague recollection of them from old books I used to page through in my father’s library when I was a kid.
“Much worse than fairies … evil … small … mixed with troll … lives in water.”
Water. That’s right. New Orleans was at sea level. I’d been so stupid. I felt like slapping myself between the eyes. Of course we weren’t in a basement. Down meant water.
I ran my hand around the wooden trapdoor, searching for a way to pry it open. I found it in the form of an old iron ring and pulled. The old wood hatch creaked as it bowed, caught by matted earth around the edges. I yanked harder, careful not to rip the iron ring off completely.
It finally swung fully open.
The smell was horrific.
I gagged, covering my mouth. “You have to be kidding me!” I coughed through my closed fingers. “It smells like death lives down there.” Eudoxia was going to get an extra sock in the jaw for making me go through this. “Maybe I should just tear the main door off its hinges and we can all go free right now? That sounds like a much better option.” I let go of the trapdoor and made a motion to stand.
“No!” Yuri’s voice held a strong note. The first I’d heard from him. I looked over at him. He was totally healed, still cradling his bride. “If you do that, the vampires will swarm. An alarm will sound and we will all be punished. Down is the only way.”
Damn. He was right. Swarming vampires would not be ideal at the moment. I couldn’t free anyone with a horde of vampires after me. I reluctantly knelt by the hole and pulled the hatch up again and glanced down into the putrid darkness.
This time I heard movement. “What’s the trick to defeating a Trow? And once I do, how do I know where to go?”
Alana stirred, moaning. Yuri petted her hair as he spoke. “There is only one way. Once you reach the end, there will be a gate.” His voice cracked, but it was almost back to normal. He cleared his throat, his heavy Russian accent still pronounced. “You will need to break the ward. Once you do, you will have only seconds to pass through or you will be trapped inside the gate forever.” His eyes danced with adventure. Yuri was definitely on the mend. “Remember … it must be done quickly.”
“How come you’ve never broken out?” I asked from my position crouched over the opening, studying the darkness below. “You obviously know what’s down there.” Being trapped here for that many years would teach you a thing or two. I was surprised he hadn’t been driven to escape, if anything for the sake of his bride’s sanity.
“Breaking the ward will take everything you have, and much more power than I have ever possessed,” he confessed. “Though I have tried to disastrous results. Mending the ravages of the Trows is no small thing. Keep them from biting you if you can.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Are they poisonous?”
“No,” he answered. “But their teeth are jagged and honed to tear the meat off your bones. Move swiftly. And once you breach the gate, you will not have time to tarry. The ward will try to hold you if it can.”
“Anything else?” I asked. “Run faster than the Trows and make sure I bolt through the ward.”
He nodded, satisfied.
His improved demeanor was nice to witness, but he still looked like a ghoul. If he really was Ivan the Terrible’s brother, he was the true blood tsar to the Russian throne. If Russia still had one.
I eyed the hole again.
My wolf had not stopped growling since I’d opened the trapdoor and exposed the hideous smell. We have no choice. We have to get through whatever is down there in order to find Naomi. Once we break through the ward, I hope to locate her quickly, and when we do, let’s hope she hasn’t been hurt too badly. There’s no more time left to discuss this. My wolf paced in my mind. She was as agitated as I’d ever seen her. Knowingly jumping into danger wasn’t on the list of things that made her the happiest. Time to go.
“Wish me luck.” I saluted Yuri once before leaping through the trapdoor, falling about twenty feet and landing with a huge splash in three feet of rancid water.
The smell threatened to overtake me.
My calves were buried in thick sludge. Good grief. I can see why Yuri doesn’t venture down here very often. My wolf snarled, keeping her nose in the air, scenting for danger. How can you smell through this muck? We have to try to do what Tyler does. Once we categorize a scent, we have to parcel it away in our minds. I’m categorizing this as “putrescence from the vamp crypt.” I focused on the essence of the smell and tried to fit it into an empty space in my mind. It finally slid into place, but only after I opened myself up to the myriad other smells lingering in this hole. Did you see that? I concentrated on the dirt smell, not the water smell, and it went away. Let’s keep doing that. Is there anything nice down here? Like a bed of roses? Of course there weren’t any flowers, but a girl could dream.
There were scurrying sounds behind me.
I took off, moving as quickly as I could, and considering the wretched, sloppy terrain it was impressive I could actually maneuver through it so fast. As I ran, my splashes echoed loudly in the tunnel. The Trows would be on us soon.
From the pictures I remembered as a girl, Trows were hideous little creatures with trollish features, wicked nails, and long jagged teeth. They were always depicted emerging out of a murky stream next to an English cottage, presumably to terrorize small English children. Many of the creepiest animal-like creatures were native to Europe. America had birthed a few nasty ones, like the windigos—the Native American flesh-eating bogeyman—but Europe had a run on the creepy-crawlies. They had gremlins, goblins, drakes, ogres, and brownies to name a few. Eudoxia likely had the Trows brought over from Europe. She apparently preferred to import her terror.
More than one splash echoed behind us.
Can you get a sense of how many are coming? Soon the splashes became too numerous to count. Dammit. My wolf was so focused on the path ahead of us, all she had time to do was to snap her jaws. We have to try and outrun them, give us more juice. A rush of adrenaline hit me and I started to sprint faster. A few strides later a loud keening sound rent the air to my left. I wrenched my head just in time to see something jump on my back. It was much smaller than I’d anticipated, about the size of a large house cat, but its claws were sharp. They cut deeply into my back. I’m going to smash it against the wall, but we can’t stop moving. It’s not very big—
Its teeth sank into the base of my shoulder.
“Motherfuc—” I collided with the side of the tunnel as hard as I could at a dead run. The tunnel walls were only hollowed-out earth, but I’d hit it with enough strength to knock it off me. I think I squashed it. There was no time to look back. Yuri had said their bites weren’t poisonous. I didn’t feel anything suspicious. I was just pissed off it had bitten me before I could shake it off. I guess their only real tactic is to tear you to pieces one bite at a time. This was exactly what I’d been cautioning Danny and Tyler about on our last journey. An army of anything could bring even the most powerful supernatural to their knees. If there are too many, it’s going to be a huge problem. They’re going to swarm us if they get the chance.
We just couldn’t give them the opportunity.
I kept running, increasing my pace as much as I could, using every available body part to aid me.
My legs went higher with each stride, which allowed me to move through the water quicker. I was in my Lycan form, but I needed more power. Hit us with more adrenaline. As my wolf fortified us, a flicker came from my peripheral vision. Another Trow leapt at me from the shallow embankment. As it flew through the air, I got a good glimpse of its face. It was mean-looking with deep-set eyes, scaly skin, rows of uneven pointy teeth, and an accentuated piglike snout.
I swung my fist around in a blur and knocked it cleanly out of the air.
It bounced out of my field of vision and I heard it plunk in the water. We’re moving too fast for most of them to mob us, but when we reach the gate, we’ll have to work fast. I don’t know how we’re going to keep them from attacking us. My wolf barked and showed us glowing, our power pushed out like a shield. Do you think we can do that? Like Stasis? She yipped. I’d gone into a cocoonlike state the last time I’d been bitten by a poisonous insect. All my power had been channeled outward like a protective bubble to keep me alive. We can try, but if we go into full Stasis, we’ll be trapped down here for a long time. We have to try for half-Stasis. Is that even possible?
I had no idea, and judging by my wolf’s reaction, neither did she. But we needed to do something or we weren’t going to make it out alive. These little beasts were going to eat me alive until there was nothing left but a skeleton.
Twenty more paces and I spotted a large glowing area. I see something. My wolf funneled more power to my muscles. Together we were siphoning everything we had. Another Trow ran into my line of vision, but I dodged it easily as it lunged haphazardly. It sounds like there’s a horde of them behind us. Let’s start transferring our energy outward. Gold strands of power manifested in my mind. We need to weave it together. I concentrated on the golden light pushing it together to form an opaque mass. The glowing up ahead became clearer. That doesn’t look like any gate I’ve ever seen. What is it?
It was a monstrous brick wall.
The only thing adorning it, or making it appear remotely like any kind of passageway, was a gigantic curved knocker with the head of a vampire bolted to the middle.
I knew instinctively if I touched the vampire bad things would happen. We don’t go near the knocker. My wolf barked in agreement, still focusing on managing our magic. We were steadily moving it outward. How are we going to get past that brick wall? It will take too long to tear a hole through it, if that’s even possible. Once we stop, we aim the magic out like Stasis and pray it’s enough to keep the Trows off us until we can figure out how to break through. I’d been unconscious the last time I’d gone into Stasis, but when I’d woken up, I’d felt the power. I had to make it feel almost like that. We couldn’t force it too far outward and risk losing consciousness. That would be a very bad thing. I’m counting on the fact the Trows don’t have much magic. If they do, we’ll need a plan B or they’ll rip through our barrier with their greedy pointy teeth.
I ran straight up to the wall without stopping, jamming my claws into the bricks. Now! My wolf shot the concentrated power outward like a balloon. My golden power flexed tightly around us, right as the first one launched itself forward. Can you feel them? Are they bouncing off? I craned my head around. Ohmygods. We were already knee-deep in nasty Trows. But they couldn’t get to my body. The power block had worked and they were furious, jumping and spitting, that they couldn’t get to the prize.
It’s working and I don’t feel much magic coming from them. Now we just have to break the ward. I closed my eyes and ran my hands along the wall, trying to sense the magic. As I did, my bubble of protection flexed. Shit. I don’t think we can keep the Trows out and break the ward at the same time. It’s going to take too much of our resources to do both. Once we grasp the ward, we’ll need to shift the power from our shield into the spell. It’s going to leave us open to bites for a few moments, but it can’t be helped.
Double damn.
I continued to run my hands over the coarse brick. The ward tasted tart and old, like biting into an unripe crab apple. It had the same underlay as the cell chains. What kind of magic is this? I’d never come across it before. It doesn’t have a witchy signature like Tally’s or Marcy’s, or even Selene’s. My knowledge of spell casters was limited, so it wasn’t saying much. Do you taste that? The spell had manifested in the back of my throat in a physical way, settling on my tongue like a coat of pollen. Whatever it is it’s ancient, and I have no idea how to break it.
The Trows continued to snarl and leap around my feet.
This was becoming a funhouse. We need to split our power and start filtering half of it into the spell. With effort, I grabbed on to some of the power, and as I funneled it forward, as predicted, the barrier between us and the Trows shrank. We have to keep no less than a foot between us and them.
Suddenly their behavior changed and they quieted.
Do you hear that? What are they doing? The Trows had stopped jumping and were now emitting weird clicking noises. They’re pissed they can’t get to us and I think they’re discussing their options.
Thinking these little beasts had intelligence was almost too much for me. Yuck.
I had no choice but to ignore them and turn back to the
task of breaking the ward. I searched for a weakness. Yuri said it would take everything I had, but I can’t even find what to focus on. The spell feels like a cloud. How do I break apart cloud? When I try to touch it, it moves. She flashed me a picture of us pouring air into a balloon. You mean fill it up? Yuri had stated emphatically I needed to close the gate when I was done. Then once we’re through, we suck our power back out? That must be it. I had to inflate it and then take it back out so the ward stayed intact and nothing else could get free and come after me. We can’t fill this sucker up slowly; it’s too big. It will drain us dry and leave us to the Trows. We have to go all in and jam it full in a few seconds. Hopefully it will work. If not, I got nothing and the Trows are going to eat us.
My wolf growled uneasily, but I took it as a yes.
We really had no other option.
Ready? The Trows had backed off for the moment and were having a full-on clicking discussion likely on how to get around my barrier and end me. I hoped like crazy that whatever I did to the wall would be so shocking that they wouldn’t have enough time to react for the few precious moments while we stood unguarded.
My wolf went into a fighting stance in my mind, ears back, low snarl.
This was it.
In the time it took to blink, I grabbed on to the power outside of my body and threw it all into the bricks. The wall took it greedily. I closed my eyes and focused on filling the rest of it up. I grit my teeth hard as the energy yanked us forward, crushing me into the barrier. I held my ground, shoving my power to the far recesses of the gate as fast as I could.
Almost there, I panted.
Without warning there was a massive tearing sound and both my arms slid through the bricks.
Keep pushing outward. Along with the ward cracking, there was a ridiculous shriek behind me and a beat later multiple sharp teeth tore in to my legs. Pain zinged up my spine. The Trows had figured out I was fair game. I kicked my legs out in a desperate attempt to fling them off me.
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