by Jamie Davis
Miranda laughed. “We’ll be out of here before they wake up if Taylor is as close as you say.”
“Hurry up,” Clark said as he started down the hallway again. “This is taking too long.”
The three of them moved down the corridor and entered the preparation room. Quinn led the way and they passed through the other door, walking down the short corridor to the elevator down to the caves.
As they waited for the elevator to come up the long shaft, Quinn glanced at Miranda. “Can you teach me how to do that spell you used on those two guys upstairs? Something like that might come in handy.”
Miranda smiled. “I told you when we first met, that type of spell casting is not something everyone can do. If you have the affinity for it, I’ll be able to teach you something, though. We’ll see once we’re somewhere safe.”
Clark turned to Quinn, saying, “Describe to me exactly what it looks like at the bottom of this elevator. I need to be ready in case there’s anyone there.”
Quinn told him about the sloping passage with the different alcoves branching off it, including the one that held the two captives.
“That’s where the two are being held. There were several cultists in there with them when they brought me up.”
“I’ll be ready for them,” Miranda said. “Clark, you worry about anyone coming up the tunnel. As long as we catch them by surprise, I should be able to deal with anyone who’s still in with Quinn’s friends.”
Clark nodded. He reached under his long, dark overcoat and drew out a short, slightly curved sword.
Quinn stared at it. “Don’t you have a gun or something? I thought you were a hunter!”
Clark shook his head. “They will have protections that can deal with mundane weapons, including firearms. This sword has magic of its own that both protects me and makes it more useful in combat against our adversaries. It will counter most of those types of spells, and will also serve well against any possessed by demons.”
“I hope so. They’re strong. Stronger than a normal human.”
Clark offered her a grim smile. “Sounds like you found out the hard way. I wondered how you got so banged up.”
“She caught me by surprise, that’s all. I’ll get the better of her the next time.”
“There won’t be next time, or at least, not any time soon. You need training before you go up against any of the possessed alone.”
Quinn started to open her mouth to argue but shut it. Little Cindy had smacked her around pretty good without much effort. She didn’t want to admit it, but maybe she did need to learn a little something before she got payback.
The elevator doors opened, and the trio started the journey to the caverns.
Clark had them all stand against one wall as the car approached the bottom. Hopefully, no one standing in the corridor would see them right away.
The doors opened, and Quinn tensed for a fight. Luckily for them, there was no one there.
Clark held a finger to his lips and pointed down the tunnel while he looked at Quinn.
She led them down the passage and pointed to the bend in the sloping path where the alcove was.
Whispering, Quinn said, “That’s where they’re holding her. Just go around that bend, and the chamber is right there.”
Clark nodded and glanced at Miranda, who smiled and gestured to the tunnel.
He headed down the tunnel, his sword at the ready in front of him. As they approached the alcove, Clark slowed and pointed to Miranda.
She slipped in front of him and edged against the wall close to the opening.
Clark trained his eyes on the tunnel beyond, watching for others.
Quinn heard a soft whisper, and the amulet flared cold on her chest. Miranda’s lips moved, although barely any sound came out. She lifted her hands in front of her, fingers weaving an intricate pattern, then took a bold step forward to stand in the alcove’s opening and pressed her hands forward. She said the word “sleep.”
Something clattered to the stone floor inside the chamber. Quinn darted around the sorceress, ready for a fight. Two cultists lay unconscious on the floor. Another groaned and held his head in his hands, shaking it as if he were trying to clear his mind.
Quinn didn’t wait for Miranda to say anything. She scooped up a loose stone from the chamber’s entrance and brought it down hard on the third guy’s head.
He staggered to the side but didn’t go down.
She had to hit him two more times before he fell to the floor and stayed there.
Taylor and the other candidate still lay naked on their tables.
Quinn turned to Miranda. “Can you wake them?”
“Let me see what they did to them. I’ve never seen this before.”
Miranda moved forward, one hand raised in front of her. She began sketching patterns in the air again as she muttered words in a strange language.
Quinn went to stand next to Taylor as Miranda cast her spell. The sorceress stepped forward and lowered her hands until her thumbs pressed against Taylor’s forehead on either side.
Behind them, Clark hissed, “Hurry up. I hear voices.”
Miranda nodded. “I can wake her, but there’s not enough time to wake the other one too, Quinn.”
Quinn glanced at the other candidate, knowing what was in store for him if they couldn’t take him along.
While Quinn stood there worrying about the other guy, Miranda finished her spell.
Taylor gasped and sat up.
Quinn grabbed her by the shoulders and moved to stand in front of her. “Taylor, look at me. Don’t look anywhere else, just at me.”
Taylor’s wide eyes darted around, trying to see beyond Quinn. She opened her mouth, drawing a big breath.
Quinn clamped a hand over Taylor’s mouth before she could let out a yell.
Taylor began to struggle, but Quinn held on. She bent over so she was right next to Taylor’s ear. “It’s me. It’s Quinn. You’re all right. Just don’t yell, or you’ll give us away.”
“Hurry up,” Clark hissed. He’d backed up so he was standing in the entrance to the alcove. “The voices are coming closer.”
“Taylor, don’t yell. Got it?”
Taylor nodded, and Quinn removed her hand.
The naked girl threw her hands across her chest, covering what she could. “What the hell is going on, Quinn? Where are my clothes?”
“It’s a long story. Here, put this on, and we’ll explain once we’re away from here.”
Quinn handed her friend one of the robes she’d brought down.
Taylor slipped the robe on and stood up. “Where’s here?”
“There’s no time for that, Taylor. We need to get out of here.”
Taylor followed Quinn’s instructions, buttoning up the robe.
Miranda moved to Taylor’s other side, and together, she and Quinn hustled the other girl back up the tunnel toward the elevator. Clark came right behind them.
A shout came from down the tunnel. Quinn looked over her shoulder.
They’d been seen.
Myles, Cindy, Fergus, and several other cultists came around the bend behind them.
The high priest pointed at Quinn and the others. “Stop them.”
Quinn let go of Taylor’s arm. “Miranda, get her to the elevator and take her upstairs. We’ll be right up.”
Miranda nodded and tugged at the dazed Taylor to keep her moving.
Quinn moved over to stand next to Clark.
He started to say something to her, then shook his head and reached into his trench coat. He pulled a long, triangular dagger from inside.
“Here. Try not to cut your fingers off.”
“What if I kill one of them?”
“They’re already damned. Your soul is safe.”
She smiled and took the knife. She wanted payback.
Clark dodged the first of the cultists racing up the passage and swept his blade around, cutting the man deep across the chest.
The guy shrieked
in agony and spun away, clutching the bloody gash running diagonally from shoulder to hip.
Clark moved to the next target with a flowing efficiency that surprised Quinn, given his age.
She tore her eyes away from Clark’s fluid fighting motions. Cindy had moved into position and snarled as she ran at Quinn.
Remembering the short redhead's surprising strength earlier, Quinn wished she could draw on her stamina the way she had inside the VR system.
To her surprise, a green status bar appeared in her vision and decreased by twenty-five percent. Quinn’s tired, battered body suddenly became energized in the same way she’d felt inside the simulator.
Cindy’s face showed her surprise at her opponent’s strength and speed when Quinn blocked the first series of blows she delivered.
Quinn raised her forearm faster than she’d ever moved before, blocking another combination attack.
She decided to return the favor.
Quinn swung the dagger, making the possessed girl dance backward. She barely avoided the slashing blow.
Cindy cocked her head to one side as if trying to gauge Quinn’s speed and strength. Then the black eyes narrowed, and she charged forward again with a growl.
The next flurry of blows came so fast, Quinn only managed to block about half of them. The others left her bruised and battered. At least she managed to stay on her feet.
Quinn knew they couldn’t get caught in a long battle down here. Deciding to try something desperate, she waited until the next round of attacks came at her and staggered back two steps, drawing Cindy with her and making the other woman think she had the advantage.
After the second step, Quinn used her back foot to push off and spring forward, ducking what might have been a killing blow to her head from the demon-possessed redhead.
As the clenched fist flew past her face, Quinn twisted and hacked down, both hands locked on the dagger’s hilt.
Cindy howled in what sounded like a combination of anger and pain as the blessed dagger sliced through her wrist and cut off her hand. The magical blade hissed as it passed through the girl’s forearm, and a few wisps of smoke came from the stump.
To Quinn’s surprise, there was no blood. Instead, ichor the same color as Cindy’s eyes oozed out of the end of the arm.
Quinn stared for a split second, then regained her composure and readied her defenses.
The other woman sneered at Quinn as she retreated a few steps. “I don’t know how you can fight so strongly after the beating I gave you earlier, but I won’t underestimate you again, girl.”
Quinn laughed and shouted back at the woman, “Come back here, and I’ll cut off the other one.”
Cindy looked over her shoulder and then at Quinn. “Maybe next time. If you survive.”
The woman quickly backed away, leaving Quinn alone with Clark.
He stood over a lifeless Fergus, pulling the sword from the center of the now-dead man’s chest. Wisps of smoke came from the hole the sword left behind. Several other bodies writhed on the ground around him.
Beyond Clark, Quinn spotted Myles farther down the tunnel, his hands raised and his lips moving. Cindy had returned to his side.
Quinn grabbed Clark’s shoulder and pointed at Myles. “He’s getting ready to cast a spell.”
Clark didn’t even look down the tunnel, just shoved Quinn. “Quick, run!”
Quinn ran.
Clark was right behind her.
From behind them, a burst of electrical energy shot up the tunnel.
Quinn was sure she was about to be fried, but the bolts of lightning splashed harmlessly off an invisible wall mere inches behind her.
Even though the electricity didn’t reach her, the hair on her head stood on end for a few seconds.
Ahead of them at the elevator doors stood Miranda, her arms splayed as if she was pushing against an invisible force. Rivulets of sweat ran down her face, and she trembled from the exertion.
Clark and Quinn raced up the tunnel to stand next to her, then looked back.
The electricity surged against the barrier as if trying to seek a way around it.
Quinn saw the elevator coming down the shaft toward them.
“Just hold it a few more seconds, Miranda. The elevator’s almost here.”
The woman didn’t say anything but gave a tiny nod of understanding.
Clark pointed at Taylor. “Get her ready to run inside. I’ll take care of Miranda.”
Quinn nodded and moved to stand beside Taylor.
The other girl pointed down the tunnel at the display of magical energy and destruction. “What the hell is going on, Quinn? It’s like Mr. Hickman is trying to kill us or something.”
Quinn rolled her eyes. Sometimes Taylor was a little slow on the uptake. “I’ll explain it to you later. Get in the elevator. Hurry.”
Not waiting for the elevator doors to open fully, Quinn gave Taylor a shove and she stumbled into the corner of the car.
Quinn ran in behind her and reached for the control panel, waiting for Clark and Miranda.
He bolted into the elevator, carrying the sorceress. Her eyes were open, but she was listless in his arms.
“Close the doors. Now.”
Quinn mashed the button that closed the doors, then Up, and the car started to move.
A split second after the car headed up the shaft, Miranda’s barrier failed, and a blast of electrical energy slammed into the empty space beneath them.
The explosion below knocked all of them from their feet, but the elevator car continued upward while they struggled upright, ears ringing.
They’d made it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The elevator rose up to the basement level, and the doors slid open. Clark stepped out first, supporting Miranda with one of her arms across his shoulders.
He didn’t get far.
A fist slammed into his head from the side, knocking him against the wall hard enough that Quinn heard the crack of bone as his shoulder impacted the concrete wall. Miranda fell in a daze to the floor outside the elevator.
“Clark,” Quinn shouted.
A man stepped into her way, blocking her view of the injured hunter. The newcomer’s eyes were as black as Cindy’s.
It was Jared, the candidate from the earlier test group. He laughed at the horrified look on Quinn’s face.
She recovered quickly.
Using the last of her earlier stamina boost, Quinn kicked out at Jared, catching him by surprise and sending him flying down the short hall.
“Taylor, find some way to wedge these doors open. We can’t let the elevator close and return to the caves.”
Quinn didn’t wait to see if Taylor heard. She dove at the demon-possessed candidate, trying to get to him before he got back to his feet, as she drew from her stamina again.
Jared kicked with both legs, kipping up and landing on his feet as Quinn got there.
He reached for her, but Quinn’s strength and speed were enhanced. She ducked under his swipe and rolled past him, coming back to her feet as she twisted and slashed at the back of his knees with the holy blade.
The dagger cut deep into one leg, buckling it. Jared almost fell over backward.
Once again, as with Cindy in the caves below, there was no blood as the blade came away, just thick black ooze from the edges of the wound.
Quinn bounced up to attack again, only to have to dodge as a pair of fists swung past the spot her face had been a split-second before.
Jared smiled as he fixed her with his black eyes. “Myles assured us the hunter clans were finished, yet here you are, trying to stop that which is inevitable.”
“If it was so inevitable, why am I standing here, ready to keep fighting, while you can barely stand on that leg I slashed open?”
“You hunters were always cocky. I remember that from the last time I walked this plane.”
“I wouldn’t know about that. I’m a new breed of hunter, the kind who is going to put you all in your place o
nce and for all.”
“Oh, so you believe yourself to be the vaunted Chosen One of hunter legend?”
Quinn didn’t know what that meant, but she did know she couldn’t afford to stand here chatting with the demon.
Feinting toward where Clark lay crumpled against the wall, Quinn turned at the last instant and lunged, trying to skewer Jared with her dagger.
He laughed and batted it away with ease.
The blow almost knocked the weapon from her hand.
Jared sneered and said, “You think you can defeat us here on our own ground? It’s only a matter of time until more of the brethren come to take you.”
Before Quinn could think of an answer, Jared launched a series of attacks using both his hands and feet.
Only because his one leg was injured and didn’t work was Quinn able to dodge the concentrated barrage.
As it was, he managed to connect with her right shoulder. Quinn felt something snap, and a surge of searing pain raced down her arm.
She wasn’t sure what he’d broken, but something was wrong with her right arm now. It wouldn’t move without waves of agony running through her shoulder.
Quinn tried to hide the severity of her injury and managed to slash out with the dagger as Jared dove at her again.
She connected with the dagger as she thrust it out in front of her. The point plunged in, sinking a good six inches into the center of Jared’s chest. He stumbled, clutching at the hilt and wrenching it from her hand.
She started to shout in triumph, but to Quinn’s amazement, he didn’t die. Instead, he hissed in pain and wrapped his hand around the leather grip, pulling the dagger free.
Jared staggered, injured from the wound but not fatally, it appeared. He held up the dagger smeared with black ichor from the wound, pointed it at her, and snarled, “It’ll take more than this to kill me. You’re not a true hunter. I see that now. You’re just a girl, a mere huntress.”
Something slid across the floor, bumping against her feet. It was Clark’s sword.
Clark called, “Have to use my holy blade.”
“I thought mine was like yours,” Quinn complained.
“The sword is special. Use it. It’s the only thing that will kill him and free the host’s soul.”