“Oh, I knew there were tunnels that led to the sea, to the Lyceum, and several other critical points, but I didn’t realize they all connected, or used to, or that they had a name. I assumed they were each separate to lower the risk of ambush.”
As much as I wanted to tease him about there being something he actually didn’t know, it was a sore spot for him. I might have done it anyway if we had been alone, but we weren’t, and I wasn’t going to give Boaz an opening to walk through. Though he had been downright decent toward Linus on this trip.
“The first turn is coming up on our right.” He lifted my hand, holding the penlight, and identified the tunnel. Several yards later, we turned right again. And on it went, twisting and turning until we were lost beneath the city with only a scrap of paper for guidance. “We’re almost there.”
“Good thing too.” Hood shrugged out of his backpack, dumped it upside down, and shook it. “She’s out of snacks.”
Lethe growled at him, but she didn’t disagree that tight quarters and an empty stomach, when hers was a bottomless pit before the baby, might not end well for some of us.
“Do you hear that?”
The sound of Boaz behind me caused me to jump after his quiet. “What?”
“Voices.”
The gwyllgi cocked their heads, and we fell silent while they listened then confirmed.
“How did you hear that before we picked up on it?” Brow pinched tight, Hood swept his gaze up and down Boaz. “Are you magically augmented?”
“No.” He tapped his right ear. “I stuck a pencil in my ear as part of a dare in elementary school. The kid who instigated it shoved me out of my chair when I pulled off the trick. The side of my head hit the desk next to me, and the point burst my eardrum.”
Linus frowned at him. “A sigil could have repaired the damage.”
“You’re right.” He laughed. “If I had told my parents, they would have gotten it healed, but I kept it to myself. I’d gotten in trouble for jumping off an old barn roof into a pond and impaling my leg on a discarded Christmas tree the week before. I had just gotten off punishment, and I didn’t want to get in trouble again.”
“You figured permanent hearing loss was the lesser of two evils?” I gaped at him. “Really?”
“I told them, eventually, but it had been months at that point. There was only so much a sigil could do since it had healed on its own, more or less. Teachers thought I was blowing them off or acting out when I didn’t respond, but I couldn’t hear them. Over time, I started living down to their expectations of me.” He wiped a hand over his mouth before he said more. “Anyway, after you healed me…”
“First you sprout a new leg, and now you’re telling me you have super hearing.” I leaned against the nearest wall, not caring if it got me slimy. “Anything else?”
Lines zigzagged across his forehead. “I regrew a toenail I lost when I was sixteen?”
“Just a new nail, right? It’s not glowing or radioactive or anything?”
“Not that I’ve noticed.” Boaz laughed under his breath. “I can show you sometime if you’re interested.”
Again, I waited.
Again, I was in for a shock.
Boaz didn’t hint at what else he might show me or anything else inappropriate.
With a flick of my wrist, I cut my light across his scalp. “Did you suffer brain damage that maybe caused the sigil to reset your entire personality too?”
“Can we focus on the voices?” He tugged on his ear. “Please?”
Embarrassment was new for him too, but I wasn’t sure if I had stepped in it by calling him out on his self-improvements or if there was more to it. Determined to make up for it, I followed his suggestion.
“Does this mean the Lyceum has been breached?” No matter how hard I strained, all I heard was dripping water. “We ought to be directly below it, or we should be soon.”
Even if the vampires stuck their heads in the elevator shaft and yelled down it, we shouldn’t be able to hear them as long as the wards held.
“It means we’ve got company.” Lethe bounced on the balls of her feet. “Lacroix must have had the same idea, sending his people down to find a way up into the Lyceum. Our secret tunnel must intersect a not-so-secret tunnel somewhere along the line.”
“You’re all getting sigils.” I sliced open my palm. “Who wants to go first?”
No one volunteered, but they didn’t argue against the precaution. Having experienced the impervious sigil, they would be stupid to pass up the offer, and even Boaz was proving he could learn.
I started with Lethe and added an extra sigil over her navel, then I moved on to Hood and then to Boaz. Linus waited until last, but I had already put one sigil on him tonight. A second wouldn’t hurt.
“Okay.” I brought up the ward around myself and kept my knife at the ready. “Let’s go introduce ourselves.”
Twelve
Lucky for us, Lacroix had only spared two vampires for this particular expedition. That, or they were traveling in pairs, and we had come across the frontrunners. The necromancers in the group didn’t have to lift a finger. The gwyllgi shifted and did all the dirty work. And if Lethe got a little carried away, I didn’t judge. Much. I mean, it’s not like she had just eaten an entire backpack’s worth of snacks. Did she really need to rip off that guy’s arm to carry around with her for later?
To ease around the feasting gwyllgi and the corpses, we walked in single file. We found the entrance right where the Grande Dame said it would be, and there were indications the vampires had found it too, but they hadn’t had any luck accessing the Lyceum.
“Stand back.” Linus studied the paper. “We can’t be sure how this door will open.”
Tracing the thin beam of light along the wall, I came up empty. “I don’t see any hinges.”
“There may not be any.” He nudged me behind him. “I have to stand under it to draw the sigils.”
“Guess that math holds,” Lethe said, wiping her mouth as she strolled up to us. “We’ll still have two necromancers left if it squishes Linus flat as a pancake.” She scrunched up her face. “Oh, no. Wait. Boaz shoots blanks. That means you can’t hog all the glory, Linus.”
Boaz offered her a smile as sweet as he liked his iced tea but didn’t say a word, just took up position to guard the tunnel in case there were more vampires on the way.
“Give us an estimate of where the opening begins and ends. Lethe and I will brace it so that it won’t swing open until we’re ready.” Hood waved me over. “You can hold the light. I’m sure he planned to grip it between his teeth, but that’s what friends are for.”
A blank mask slid over Linus’s features, obscuring them. Not Scion Lawson. Not Professor Lawson. Not the potentate either. This was…not a mask at all. It was shock leaching all expression off his face. The easy inclusion in the group had stunned him.
Oh, Linus.
Crossing to him, I captured his face between my palms and stared at him until he thawed, and then I pulled him down to me and wrapped my arms around his waist.
“You are valued,” I whispered in his ear. “You are trusted.” I nipped his earlobe. “You are loved.”
Lethe clamped a hand on his shoulder. “You’re also pack.”
“Thank you.” His lips brushed my cheek, spreading chills. “For seeing me.”
The days of him walking into danger alone were past. The days of him taking the hit to spare me, to spare us, were gone. The days of him experimenting on himself without supervision? Yep. Also done.
It would take him some time, but he would learn to accept being family in a way he never had been. The family I had collected over the years might not make sense to most High Society necromancers, but they had my back. Always. We shared no DNA, but we had shared tears, hurts, and grief. That bonded us thicker than blood.
“Get into position.” Hood braced his palms against the low ceiling where Linus indicated, and Lethe mirrored him. Smiling at his mate, whose mouth wa
s smeared with blood, he told Linus, “Do your worst.”
“Or your best.” I stood at his shoulder, angling the light to supplement his night vision. “I would like us to all walk away from this. Maybe even limp. I could deal with limping.”
Linus painted on the sigil, and the ceiling began to ripple and then warp. Above us, a narrow hole opened that stretched farther than we could see, and a ladder mounted to the brick was revealed an arm’s length away.
The gwyllgi were left holding up air and lowered their arms once the illusion fully dispersed.
“That was anticlimactic.” Lethe fisted her hands on her hips. “What a waste of a motivational speech.”
Hood slung an arm around her shoulders. “You can go first, if it makes you feel better.”
Lethe shrugged him off her. “Like I was giving you an option.”
No boost required, she leapt the short distance to the ladder and started hauling herself up and out of sight. Hood followed close behind, both of them gone silent.
“You’re next.” Linus tucked the map into his back pocket then bent to offer me the boost Lethe hadn’t needed to reach the lowest rung. “I’m right behind you.”
I started climbing, but I hung back until Linus joined me, and, okay, I might have waited for Boaz too.
I’m not sure how long it took to reach the top, but my legs wobbled like a newborn colt’s when Hood pulled me into an alcove before yet another tunnel mouth. We shuffled together to make room for the stragglers, and then we fell in behind Linus.
Not too long after, he turned and addressed the group in a whisper. “Almost there.”
A golden hatch about four feet around capped the end of the passage. There was nowhere to go but up, and I had no doubt, given the twenty-four-karat entrance, we had reached the underbelly of the Lyceum.
This time, Linus didn’t use a sigil. He threw his back into twisting a dial marked with sigils into the correct position. Each time he paused, I heard a click. The ornate hub made for one heck of a combination lock.
The shriek of metal hinges made me cringe as Linus eased the hatch open, and I almost laughed when I saw where it spat us out. “This really is your mother’s private exit.”
The en suite restroom attached to her office spread out before us, and when I stepped onto the tile floor and turned, I saw the tunnel mouth was disguised as a circular mirror on this side.
“Anyone need a potty break?” Lethe joked. “I bet there’s gold-plated tissue in this joint.”
The others joined me, and we began the slow process of clearing the Lyceum. So far, so good.
When we reached the gleaming silver doors, Hood pried them apart to reveal the elevator car.
“That’ll be fun to shimmy through.” Lethe rubbed her belly. “I hope I can suck in enough.”
Mentally, I hoped she couldn’t, but I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut.
Hood took point, strolling in and locating the top hatch then coaxing it open with practiced ease. When he walked out, he smiled at my surprise. “I worked at the Faraday, remember? I covered Midas’s shifts on his off days. Spend enough time in an elevator pushing buttons so residents don’t have to, you start amusing yourself with running escape scenarios for the day when you’ve officially had enough of being stuck in a box with strong perfumes, strong opinions, and strong prejudices.”
“There are also entitled idiots who go elevator surfing,” Lethe informed me.
That sounded all kinds of dangerous. “How is that a thing?”
“Social media.” She made a face. “Our kids aren’t getting internet access until they’re fifty.”
Hood nodded agreement, and I wished them both luck with that. We lived in a digital age, and kids were plugged in from the cradle, it seemed. Even Oscar had his own cell. Granted, he was slightly older than fifty. Maybe I wasn’t such a bad parent after all.
“I’ll go up first.” Linus rolled his shoulders, and his tattered cloak unfurled. “Are you ready?”
To face my grandfather? To face Odette? To witness the consequences of their actions?
“No.” I touched my fingertips to the center of my chest, where the stake was concealed. “Let’s go.”
Linus gripped the edge of the opening then pulled himself through the gap on top of the car in a feat of strength that almost made me regret whining all those times Lethe made me lift weights in addition to running and defense training. He got to his feet and tested the ladder for signs of tampering then gave us a thumbs-up before starting to climb. He was several feet in the air when Boaz sidled up next to me and put his hand on my shoulder.
“Let one of us take the shot, if it comes down to it.” He squeezed. “You don’t want Odette on your conscience.”
“Thanks.” I patted his hand. “But we might not get the chance to draw straws.”
Dropping his arm, he stepped back to wait his turn. Hood lifted me through the opening, clucking his tongue the whole time. Fine. Maybe I would make more of an effort to develop upper-body strength.
Lethe came up after me, and then Hood, with Boaz bringing up the rear yet again.
Sweat popped on my forehead, and my palms grew slick. This was more exercise than I had expected, and the vertical climbs were turning my muscles to taffy.
Exactly five eternities later, Linus slowed to examine a door. Without looking back, he made a universal hand signal for up then a number one.
One more floor. I could swing that. Sure, I could. Yep. No problem. I got this.
Lethe caught up to me and half covered my back to keep me from splatting from exhaustion.
All right, so I didn’t got this.
Safe within the cage of her arms, I finished the climb otherwise unassisted. And when Linus pried open the next set of doors and gave the all-clear, I shoved him in with a hand on his butt so I could collapse in a heap on the tile beside him. Lethe climbed over me, and I let her. Hood too. But Boaz was on a tear about propriety apparently and waited on me to get out of his way. Since that wasn’t happening without help, Linus hooked his hands under my arms and dragged me, flipping me over in the process to give me a view of the ceiling and his quiet amusement. He held a finger to his lips before I could release the groan moving through my sternum.
“Go on without me,” I mouthed.
“Okay,” he mouthed back.
“I was joking.” I shoved up onto my elbows to better glare at him.
“Me too.” Gently, he pressed his lips to mine. “Do you need to rest?”
“Just let me catch my breath.”
Lethe and Hood worked alongside Boaz to ensure there were no surprises waiting for us while I caught my fourth or fifth wind. I was losing count. Linus stayed with me, his cloak growing darker and more substantial than ever.
I was sitting upright by the time they circled back, and their somber expressions did nothing for my confidence. I pulled the modified pen from my pocket and drew a sigil for privacy on the nearest doorframe.
“We count thirty vampires on this floor,” Lethe said. “Most are in the next room playing cards between us and the stairs. No sign of Lacroix or Odette.”
“We can’t get past them without alerting the others.” I capped then recapped my pen. “We’ll have to use obfuscation sigils and hope for the best.”
“That won’t mask our sounds or scents.” Linus stared at the pen, and I felt like an idiot. The ink was blood, and I had perfumed the air with the one thing guaranteed to send vampires running—straight for us. “We’ll have to go down one at a time to minimize the noise.”
And the scent of spiced blood ripe for drinking.
“I’ll go first,” Boaz volunteered. “I’ve been bringing up the rear all night. It’s time for a change of pace.”
The others shrugged off his request, but it struck me as too calculated, too casual for such a hothead.
“You go down there hunting Lacroix without backup,” I said, “and you’ll end up dead.”
“He forced me to kill my pa
rtner, Grier.” He wiped a hand down his face. “He turned all those sentinels against the people they were sworn to protect, against each other.”
“He’s going to die,” Linus told him without looking at me. “I have no objection to you being the one who kills him, but Grier is right. He’s an ancient. He’s clever, has no regard for lives other than his own, and you would be throwing away your life if you make an end run for him.”
“I can be a team player,” Boaz said at last, voice tight. “I’ll wait.”
Figuring that was as close to a promise as I was going to finesse out of him, I drew an obfuscation sigil on his throat and braced myself when he disappeared. As I worked my way around the room, they talked strategy for how to locate and subdue Lacroix and Odette. Subdue was the word they used for my benefit, but I was the one carrying a stake with his name on it. I had no illusions about how this would end.
“Fiddlesticks,” I muttered, tapping the pen across my open palm. “Lacroix’s charm protects him from my magic. We don’t know if that extends to defensive sigils or only voids offensive sigils.” I extended the pen in Linus’s general direction. “You draw on the sigils.” After he smudged the one I had drawn on him and reappeared, I shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.”
Before I passed it over, I drew on my own obfuscation sigil and vanished from his sight.
“Grier.” The way he said my name gave me chills. “What are you doing?”
“Lacroix won’t hurt me if he finds me.” I rose and sneaked a few paces away in case Linus attempted to grab me. As long as I kept moving, he would have trouble spotting me. It wouldn’t stop the gwyllgi from tattling, but they were supposed to be on my side. “He needs me for his precious heirs, and I need answers.” As a concession, I added, “You’ll be invisible to him, all of you, until he clues in that I’m not alone.” That particular sigil worked best on the unwary. “I’ll have plenty of backup, more than ever. The risk to me is minimal.” I screwed up my pride then swallowed it. “Please, Linus. I need closure.”
“All right,” he said softly. “We’ll do this your way, but if he harms you, I will kill him. Answers or not.”
How to Wake an Undead City Page 22