by Jamie Davis
She bent down and grabbed the sword, holding it in front of her to fend off the wounded man.
Unseen behind Jared, Taylor came out of the elevator. She helped Miranda up and pulled one of the sorceress’ arms over her shoulder.
The elevator doors closed behind the women, and the car started back down.
Damn, Taylor must not have been able to wedge the door. Myles and the others would be coming up soon.
Quinn circled to the left until she stood between her companions and Jared, the sword at the ready in front of her.
She took stock of the situation. Clark was struggling to get up, but he was sorely injured. Taylor would be no help, and Miranda was done, too. If anyone was going to protect them and get them all out of here, it would have to be her.
She glanced at her stamina bar, which was still hovering in front of her. The color had changed; it was now dark amber. She’d kept drawing on it as she fought Jared, and it showed only about twenty percent remaining. She didn’t have much time left before it ran out.
She didn’t know what would happen if she drew it all the way down during a fight, but it wouldn’t be good. Quinn didn’t have a choice, though. She had to hurry up and defeat Jared so they could get out of there. The elevator would return in a few minutes.
“Taylor, help the others get out. I’ll be right behind you.”
Quinn didn’t wait to see if they’d started moving, just charged in, leading with her sword. The plan was desperate, and she was only going to get one shot at this.
Without warning, Jared sprang forward to meet her charge.
She hadn’t expected that response. She’d thought he would wait for her to come to him.
He swept the dagger in and used the blade to parry the tip of the sword as it came at him.
Quinn switched her attack at the last instant, her response a last act of desperation.
Instead of trying to hold the sword in position to skewer the demon, she let the force of the parry swing the sword wide as she dropped to the floor.
The dagger’s follow-up stroke passed just above her head, close enough to part her hair. Quinn didn’t see it. She’d used the sword’s momentum to help spin on her knees, bringing the short sword around at Jared’s exposed torso.
The blade bit deep, cutting through the ribs and all the way to his spine.
Jared’s legs gave out beneath him and he collapsed to the floor, black ichor oozing from the wound. He’d dropped the dagger and was clutching the huge gash in his chest.
Quinn stood and moved to hold the sword poised over him, ready to strike again. “Time to finish you, demon. I’m a huntress, all right, and this huntress is going to kill you.”
“I cannot be so easily killed. I might feel pain, but if this body is destroyed, I will simply transfer to another already prepared nearby.”
Quinn didn’t wait for him to say anything else. She plunged the sword into his heart, twisting the blade in the wound before pulling it free.
Jared’s shocked eyes stared up at her as the blackness faded from them. Then he was the innocent guy he’d been before all this. He gasped and tried to say something to the woman standing over him, sword in hand.
Quinn struggled to find words to explain what she’d done.
She never got the chance. Jared’s now-human eyes lost focus, shifting away from her face to fix on the ceiling as they glazed over in death.
Quinn straightened up and began gasping. Her stamina status flashed red, a mere sliver of the bar remaining. She’d stopped drawing on the power bar in time, but she nearly collapsed as the enhanced strength and speed left her.
Suddenly, every part of her battered body flooded her brain with pain. Gasping for air as she pushed past the surges, Quinn limped down the short hall to the door leading back to the basement.
Taylor stood on the other side, staring wide-eyed through the window. As Quinn approached, the other girl opened the door for her and held it to let her through.
Quinn stepped into the room. Clark stood nearby, cradling his crushed arm with his free hand. Miranda leaned against one of the stainless steel tables, nearly collapsing from exhaustion due to her magic expenditure.
“He’s dead,” Quinn said. “The elevator’s on the way back up, so we need to get out of here.”
Clark nodded. “Let’s go, then. We’ve been here long enough.”
He started toward the door to the long basement hallway. Taylor moved to help support Miranda as they followed Clark. Quinn considered the door behind them but decided she couldn’t block it, so she limped after them as fast as she could.
They reached the stairs and headed up to the main level. Quinn was unsure where to go at that point, though.
“How did you two get in here?”
Miranda pointed to the double doors all the way down the long hall that led to the main entrance. “Clark and I came in the front, but we can’t get out that way. We’re both spent.”
Quinn thought for a minute, then pointed up the hallway to the entrance to the testing wing. She’d remembered something from the first session in the VR system. “There’s a side corridor just past the locker rooms. I think there’s an exit sign pointing that way. It must lead to a door that opens somewhere at the back of the building.”
Clark nodded, and the four of them started up the corridor.
Quinn held Clark’s sword in her one good hand. It was the only weapon they had left. She hoped they didn’t end up in another fight on the way out.
Luckily, they encountered no one else. Everyone was either down in the caverns or had left for the night.
They entered the testing wing, and Quinn led them to the bend in the corridor near the locker rooms.
There it was.
The exit sign hung from the ceiling just where she remembered it.
They all shuffled toward the emergency exit, almost making it out of the building before an alarm sounded from the overhead speakers.
Myles had reached the basement and raised the alert.
“We need to get out now,” Quinn said. “Hopefully the exit isn’t locked down because of the alarm.”
“We’ll find out,” Clark replied.
The sign on the said, Emergency Exit Only. Alarm will sound when opened.
Quinn laughed. “Don’t need to worry about that, do we?”
She pushed the panic bar down, praying the door opened.
It did, and cool night air flowed in.
Clark started to push past her, but Quinn held him back with one arm. “Let me go first. I’ll make sure the coast is clear.”
“Be careful. Don’t go far.”
Quinn nodded as she opened the door all the way and stepped outside. She peered through the darkness to see if anyone was there. Then she remembered.
“Dammit, I need to see.”
Instantly, the darkness was gone, shades of blue tinting everything. She scanned the area, looking both ways for trouble.
Alarms sounded from both inside and at the front of the building. Here in the back, though, things were relatively quiet.
A broad, grassy area stretched for a hundred yards or so to a tall stone wall.
Quinn gestured to the others. “Let’s go.”
The others came out, and Quinn turned toward the parking lot.
Clark shook his head. “We need to go back the way Miranda and I came in. You’ll never get out the front gate. Too many guards.”
“Which way, then?”
Clark pointed toward the stone wall across the field. “That way. My car’s parked on the other side.
“Good, let’s go.” Quinn moved to help Taylor with Miranda, while Clark led the way.
At the wall, which was nearly eight feet tall, Quinn and Taylor worked together to lift Miranda to the top.
She reached the top, nodded down at them, and slipped out of sight as she dropped to the other side.
“You’re next, Clark.”
He stepped up, and Quinn boosted him up to the top
. He grunted in pain as he let go of the injured arm to let it hang at his side. He had no choice. He had to use his good hand to get to the top.
Once there, he straddled the wall and reached down.
“Come on. We need to hurry before someone spots us from the building or drives by.”
Taylor was pulled up first while Quinn boosted her.
Once her friend was over safely, Quinn took Clark’s hand and pulled herself up and over.
From atop the wall, Clark pointed to a storage center across the road about fifty yards away. “My car is in the lot over there.”
“Good,” Quinn said. “Let’s get out of here.”
The other two had already started toward the storage center’s lot, and Quinn and Clark hurried to catch up. Both Quinn and Clark reached for the driver’s door.
Clark shot her a glance.
Quinn laughed. “You’re in no condition to drive. Give me the keys.”
“You’ve got a bum arm, too.”
“Just give me the keys. I promise to be careful.”
Clark actually chuckled and dug them from his pocket. “You should see yourself before you go criticizing me.” He handed her the keys and went around to climb into the front passenger seat.
Quinn slid in, started the car, and turned to look at Taylor and Miranda. “Everyone in?”
They both nodded, and Quinn drove out of the lot into the early morning light.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Two days later, Quinn paced the floor in Clark’s seedy little apartment. It barely had two rooms. There was a small kitchen area that also served as part of the living room, a tiny bathroom, and a single bedroom.
She turned and looked through the grimy window at the city street outside. “Why can’t we go back and try to find the others?”
Clark laughed.
There was little humor in his face when Quinn spun to confront him. He held up a hand to forestall her response.
“Quinn, we’re in no condition to do anything. Besides, they’ll be expecting us. Until we gather more information and find additional help, we’ll stay here.”
He sat at the small dining table, his arm still in a sling. He’d insisted he didn’t need a doctor or a hospital, claiming his enhanced hunter healing ability would take care of it in a few days.
Quinn couldn’t argue with him. He moved the injured shoulder better today than yesterday, and she knew how fast her own injuries were healing, following their escape from VirSync.
Miranda chimed in to agree with the older hunter. “Clark’s right. We have to stay put while we gather our strength. I’ve still not recovered from the other night. I overextended myself in ways I never thought I’d have to. It’s going to take me at least a week to get back to normal.”
Taylor looked up from her spot on the sagging couch next to Miranda. She’d been watching TV and mostly ignoring their ongoing discussions about what to do next. “I’d like to repeat my request to let Quinn and me go back to our apartment and get some more clothes. I’m tired of wearing a pair of Clark’s sweatpants and t-shirts. I need a bra, at least.”
Clark shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. They’re sure to be watching your place. You can never go back there. In fact, I need to reach out to some friends and see about getting you both new identities.”
Taylor smiled. “Can I pick my new name? That would be fun, Quinn. We could pick something exotic and sexy, right?”
Quinn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They’d uncovered a plot to take over the world and saved Taylor from demonic possession, and she was worried about what her new name might be.
“I’m not changing my name,” Quinn said. “It’s the only thing I have left from my parents. It ties me to them and to the legacy they tried to leave me.”
“Does that mean you’ve decided to begin your training as a hunter?” Clark asked.
Quinn nodded. “I like the new things I can do. I want to find out how much more I’m capable of.”
“It’s not going to be easy, you know.”
“Stop trying to dissuade me. I’m doing this. They’re not going to stop. Myles and his cult of demon worshipers will continue their efforts to destroy the world as we know it. I have to train and learn so we can go back after them.”
Miranda nodded. “We also need to figure out exactly how they’re using that VR technology coupled with magic to send their unwitting assassins out to kill those who’d stand in their way.”
Taylor laughed and raised her hand. “Oh, I can answer that. The breakthrough came when they figured out a new kind of computer-neural interface. They’d discovered a powerful new energy source, which I now know comes from the magical spells they use. The combination makes it possible to open up some sort of breach in space and time. That was how they got us to the city and back again.”
The apartment’s other three occupants stopped their conversation and stared at Taylor.
She noticed the awkward silence after a few seconds and twisted her head to find them all looking her way.
“What? It’s not something I’ve ever seen before or fully understand, but I saw enough of the code before I was sent into the VR system each time to get the gist of what they were doing. I’d talked with Claire and Gary about it, and we compared notes. That’s how I figured it out.”
Clark leaned forward in his chair. “Taylor, that’s great news. So you can replicate it and duplicate the system they’re using to transport the candidates to their targets?”
Taylor shrugged. “I might be able to. I would need the right equipment, and that doesn’t take into account needing a way to magically energize it the way they did.”
“I can probably do that,” Miranda said. “We’d have to experiment to get it right. If you can recreate the proper computer programming, though, I should be able to feed you enough magical energy to make it work, at least in theory. We’d probably have to try a couple of different things to magnify my abilities, but I’m confident we can figure it out once we get the basic configuration right.”
Clark nodded. “If we could do that, we might be able to stop some of their incursions.” He stopped, and his expression changed as his eyes displayed a deep sadness. “This is what the clans would’ve provided for us in another time and place. The collective energy of all worked together and created a sort of strength in numbers and abilities was hard to overcome, at least until we were betrayed.”
“What’s to stop that from happening again?” Quinn asked.
“The clans are gone, Quinn. They’ve been gone for almost twenty years. We can’t just resurrect them, can we?”
Quinn didn’t answer, looked around the apartment. Taylor had stopped watching TV. Miranda smiled her way, and Clark just sat there and scowled at her like he always did.
It was then that Quinn understood what they needed to do. “Why can’t we?”
“What can’t we what?” Clark asked. “Why can’t we resurrect the clans? They’re all gone, Quinn. I’ve told you that.”
“But they’re not, Clark. The purges didn’t succeed. I’m proof of that. You are, too. You said you might be my distant cousin or uncle or something. You and I are part of a clan.”
“Quinn, a clan’s a lot more than two people.”
“Hear me out. You said there are others out there like us, scattered around the world. Here in Baltimore, it’s not just you and me. We have Miranda, and Taylor, too.”
“They’re not hunters. She’s a witch, and I don’t know what Taylor is.”
“Gee, thanks,” Taylor said.
Quinn shook her head. “You don’t understand. Yes, the old clans as you knew them are dead and gone, but you also said they’d stopped being as effective as they were in the old days. Maybe it’s time for us to start a new type of hunter clan. One that has more than just old-school hunters.”
Miranda gestured at the others. “You’re proposing that the four of us become the seeds of a new hunter clan?”
“Why not? That’s what
Myles and the others have done. They adapted to modern times and new technologies, using it to accomplish their evil ends. Maybe the hunters need to do the same thing. We might be late to the game, but we’re not out of it. Taylor’s got mad coding skills, and we’ve all seen what Miranda can do when it’s needed. All we need is a couple of badass hunters to go after the bad guys.”
Clark started to answer, then stopped and stared at the table. He seemed to be considering what Quinn had said. She decided to stop talking and let it sink in.
After at least ten seconds of silence, Clark looked up. “I’ve been trying to do this alone for so long, I forgot what it was like to work with a team.”
Quinn shook her head. “We’re not a team, Uncle Clark. We’re a clan—a new hunter clan forming here and now.”
She caught the hint of a smile when she called him “Uncle.” Quinn hadn’t thought much about being related to him until now, but it felt right when she said it.
Miranda laughed. “What do you say, Uncle Clark? I’m in if you’re in.”
He shook his head, then chuckled. “Fine, I’ll go along with this, but we’re going to nip this Uncle Clark thing in the bud. Quinn, we might be related in some way, but if you want to start a new clan, then I become your Clan Master. Your sensei, to use a term you might understand better. Are you okay with that?”
Quinn beamed and nodded. “I can live with it.”
Taylor bounced up from her seat on the couch. “So that’s it? We’re a clan now?”
Miranda smiled. “I guess we are, although I think we need to iron out some things about who’s in charge of what.”
“There has to be a leader,” Clark said. “Someone has to be in charge. That’s how this has to work.”
“I’m not suggesting a democracy, Clark,” Miranda answered. “But my experience with a coven is a sort of collective leadership based on each person’s strengths. When it comes to hunter stuff and training Quinn, you are the one in charge. Since that’s the primary role of a hunter clan, that makes you our clan leader. For the support stuff and creating this new hybrid tech-magic interface, though, Taylor and I will take the lead. Agreed?”