Lifting an arm, the creature pointed toward the corner. I lifted a brow in question. With his black eyes watching me warily, he spoke low in his gravelly voice.
“Cavern’s there. Down tunnel, through white door, follow path.” I assessed him for a long moment. I hadn’t thought to check the underground sewers. Nodding, I sheathed my sword, snuffing its blue flames.
“If you have led me astray, I will come looking for you.” Without waiting for reply, I pivoted on my heel, walking to the women huddled in the corner. Some weren’t even adults yet, girl’s I guessed were in their teens. I felt the anger in me rising. Keeping it controlled, I faced them.
“Go. You are free. Get far away from this city. There is nowhere in this city safe for humans anymore.”
The women and girls didn’t hesitate. They pulled themselves up, limping and assisting one another. I tracked their movements with my eyes. As they passed the four Vampires, I caught the gaze of the aquamarine eyed Vampire. He looked at me with even more interest now, and I rolled my eyes. I had begun turning away when he stepped forward, placing a hand on my arm. The contact made me bristle. Looking up at him, I glared. Allowing heat to flood that area of my skin, I wanted to laugh when he yanked his hand back, cursing.
When he looked back down at me, I saw awe in his expressive aquamarine eyes. “Please, Valkyrie. We need you to speak with Dresden. You have no idea what awaits you in that tunnel, do you really think it’s wise to go in alone?”
Studying him, I flexed my jaw. I had no problem whatsoever going in there alone. I was fully aware of what I was capable of, even if he wasn’t. I was, however, torn with indecision. I desperately wanted to infiltrate the Caverns hidden beneath this city to see what evil lurked there, and hopefully gain new knowledge about how they were getting into my world. These Vampires, however, seemed almost desperate to bring me to their leader. I was also aware this might be a trap.
Kicking a brick in annoyance over this decision, I argued with myself for several minutes. Looking at the four waiting Vampires again, I shrugged. “Villart can wait.”
I turned swiftly, lifting the sewer grate from its place over the tunnel opening. Behind me, the Vampire called out to me, asking me to wait. With no hesitation, I dropped into the black hole in the ground. No one owned me. No one controlled me except me. I wanted to find out what was down there in that cavern. I felt the way I did when stalking my prey. The object of my obsession eating at my soul, begging me to follow its deliciously sweet scent.
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However unwise it may have been to leave Villart’s men, and he himself, hanging, I did not care. I followed the path I wanted to. Right then, that path was the one that I hoped would lead me to knowledge and information about my adversary. I hit the ground far below with a soft thud. My eyes immediately adjusted to the darkness around me as I scanned the area. I was in a wide cylindrical tunnel. The cement floor beneath me was damp, and trickles of water ran down the curved walls.
The smell was terrible down there. Like a mixture of decay and rotting flesh. Unfortunately, this was a smell I had come across many times in the past month. Doing my best to ignore the putrid aroma, I walked into the unknown. I didn’t have time for hesitations or disgust. There was less than a month left before All Hallows Eve and the final eclipse. The world could be shrouded in darkness, and I needed answers before that happened.
Desmond and Byron were stronger and more organized than we had thought. It made sense. They’d had hundreds of years to gather forces and make plans. I’d only been back in my true self for less than a year. The first eighteen years of this lifetime I had spent as an oblivious human girl. I’d had no idea who I was until I became Valkyrie. Really became Valkyrie. My name may have been the same, but until the night my soul had merged with my new self, I had been lost and confused.
Now, I truly was Valkyrie, the true Valkyrie. I may still have a lot of unanswered questions about the new sides of myself, but I had moved on. Answers, I had learned, were not something easily found. Worse, often times you wouldn’t like the answers you received. I had killed the man I cared for, been betrayed by the man I had once called my lover, and found that I was the spawn of Death himself. That was a lot to take in. I was trying to take it one day at a time. One answer at a time.
Some days were easier than others. Some days I was a completely sane Vampire who also happened to walk in flames. Other days, the dark demons of my past and my soul ate at my mind. There were dreams, dark and wild that plagued me now. Sleep was no longer my friend. Sleep allowed the monsters to haunt me. I pushed myself to stay awake as long as I could. When I was an ignorant human, having just been reborn and left alone, I had gone an entire month without sleep.
Now, I pushed and tested my limitations. The one downside to wearing myself too thin was the opportunity it provided my darker side. The more exhausted or weak I became, the more that blackness inside took over. Those days, I preferred not to think about. When my sinister side took over, I did things I was not entirely proud of. I became wicked. It was difficult to control that part of me as it was, but when it took hold and forced its way into the driver’s seat, it was nearly impossible to regain control.
Like a never-ending battle that raged in my subconscious, my good side, the one that believed in helping others and saving the world, tried to keep my wicked side at bay. My dysfunctional side, the one who held a bleak outlook on humanity, who believed death and destruction was the answer to all, never removed its claws from my soul. I had slowly come to accept that it was part of my nature. I had the feeling it had been there all along, ever since the beginning.
Shoving the bleak thoughts from my mind, I focused on my surroundings. The unlit tunnel before me appeared to continue deep into the distance. As I walked carefully down the dank sewer, I passed a fork in the path. Glancing down each one, I continued past them. The path I followed was heavy with the scent of decay. It was that trail I followed. The creatures emerging from the overtaken Lost Cities all smelled of decay. Noise caught my attention.
Freezing, I allowed my powers to flow through me. My ivory skin darkened, becoming soot. My eyes deepened to black, and I became the shadow. The sounds continued to grow closer as I listened intently. Gruff muttering and gravelly laughter told me it was more Doblin’s. Stepping silently forward, I followed their sounds. A hundred feet or so ahead, the tunnel curved right. That’s where I saw them. Two of them huddled before a metal door painted white.
So the Doblin had told the truth. Perhaps they were more intelligent than I gave them credit for. Moving closer to them, I waited until I was directly behind them. There I stopped, and listened.
“Don’t like this work. E’s always bossing me round. Doblin want to hunt. Doblin want to play with the human’s.”
The second revolting Doblin jiggled his enormous gut. Like jelly, it rolled and bounced. I rolled my eyes. These Doblin’s were crude.
“Ye’s know E’s got a plan. E’s gota’ fine em Draiks afore Ee can let us play. Witout em Draiks, Ee’s boss int appy.”
I considered this information. So, whoever was directing their movements here needed the Draikais. This was useful information. Pulling my sword from its sheath, I sunk it into the first Doblin’s neck, and then attacked the second without a sound. The creatures slid to the ground. Stepping over their prone bodies, and up to the white door, I pulled it open cautiously.
Inside, all I saw was more darkness. Stepping past the threshold, I scanned the narrow path. It appeared to be some sub-channel that ran off of the main sewer. Closing the door, I continued into the darkened hole. I could hear the drip of water as it left the ceiling and hit the inch or so of water that trickled along the curved floor. The smell of decay grew stronger, and dark green algae grew along the walls.
I figured this chamber must have been closed off long ago. It was unlikely this entire area of the sewer system had been used in many years. Becoming still, I strained my ears to listen for any sound. Nothing. The
space down here was void of all noise and all light from the outside world. I hastened my steps. I needn’t have worried about making noise. Chances were that I would sense anyone entering this chamber long before they would sense me in my darkened state.
Running along the tunnel, I advanced quickly toward the fork I saw ahead. Once there, I stopped to assess the area. All was quiet. There were three possible paths. Peering down each one, I inhaled deeply, searching for any clue as to which direction I should take. It was not a smell that gave me my answer, but the high pitched, shrill scream of a woman. It echoed through the chamber, bouncing off the cylindrical walls and finding my ears.
Right. The sound had come from the path to the right. Deeper into the sewers I ran, the screams continued for several minutes before fading away. They were followed by sobbing. The sound was pitiful. It pulled at my heartstrings, despite the darker side of my soul trying to ignore them. The end of the tunnel appeared before me. A man sized round opening in the wall was the only entry into what lay beyond the wall.
Preparing myself, I called forth just a hint of darkness to aid me. I felt it surge within me, ready to protect me and wreak havoc. Stepping into the hole, I straightened to peer at one of the most jaw dropping sights I had seen yet. The good side of my soul flared in anger and pain at the horror that greeted my eyes.
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2
Breaking the Chains
Five women were strung up by chains in the deep wide cavern I had stepped into. Suspended from the roof of the cavern which was strewn with stalactites, the women hung naked. Their ankles and wrists pulled in a spread eagle stance as the chains held them tightly. Blood ran down their bodies, and pooled beneath their feet. For a moment, I was afraid they were dead. The sight brought forth the monster in me as overpowering emotions washed through me.
I may have had a dark side, but even it didn’t like what it saw. Blinking in my state of shock, I lost control of my battle. Actually, I let go of it. At that moment, seeing those women hanging there like rag dolls, bruised and battered, the darkness was all I wanted. As it took over my body, my bones began to crunch and shift as the reaper within me emerged. My large skeletal and shredded wings rose behind me, casting their deathly shadow into the dimly lit chamber before me.
I felt the fire that caressed my body with its intimate heat. Pulling my sword from its sheath, I watched it become engulfed by blue flames. One of the women lifted her head slowly. I could see the pain that the tiny movement caused her. She stared at me, and in her eyes, it was not fear I saw, but hope. Opening my mouth, I let out a bone chilling scream as I descended into the chamber. Doblin’s scurried out of my way, and several of the grotesque naked and hunched female creatures like the one who had led me there, shuffled away quickly.
To say I was furious was an understatement. I was rage. I was the daughter of Death, and at that moment I was ready to become the Reaper I knew lived in my soul. My fangs emerged, and my blood boiled as fire coursed through my veins. Lifted by my wings, I half leapt, half flew through the air at the male Vampires who stood near the tortured bodies of the women.
Bringing my sword down on one, I speared two others with the sharp tips of my wings as I whirled through the group of Vampires in a bloodthirsty rage. Blood splattered my face, dripping into my mouth and fueling the darkness in me even more. Twisting and spinning, I sliced my way first through the Vampires, and then the Doblin’s who tried to flee. My chest heaved as I sliced and stabbed, licking the blood from my lips. The Vampires had been strong, but they hadn’t known what hit them.
My crimson eyes glowed with anger and violence, and my fire burned hot. I looked at the three females with their large veiny breasts sagging in the front of them. They huddled together in a corner, whispering about a Reaper. As I stared at them, I felt the two sides of myself battling over whether to kill or leave them.
Behind me, a soft voice rasped. If I had been a human I would not have heard the nearly inaudible sentence. “Spare them. They are but slaves to ones who are much worse.”
I blinked. I felt the fires in me cool slightly. Turning my back to the three hideous females, I scanned the cavern, looking for others who deserved my judgment. When my eyes found the round cavity in the wall where I had entered, I was surprised to see Villart’s four henchmen standing there. They stared openly at me, their eyes roving over my nude body and wings.
I laughed to myself. What a sight I must have been, smeared with blood and guts as I was. Returning my attention to the five women, I strode forward, the fire on my skin burning brighter and hotter. Grabbing the chains, my mind became clouded in memories.
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Silver metal bit into my wrists and ankles as I hung suspended in the shaft. Darkness surrounded me and my eyes refused to open. The darkness nestled inside of me, consoled me, as I waited alone in my misery. My skin healed over old wounds created with the silver whip as it sliced through layers of my skin. Whispers floated in my mind. Hafnium, carbon…. His voice drifted to me as his hands fondled my body without invitation. His voice was like warm honey as it caressed my soul, stirring my anger.
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My eyes snapped open and my mind returned to the present. I felt a tremble of violence run along my spine at the surge of anger the memory brought with it. I screamed his name. “Desmond!”
With my chest rising and falling rapidly, and my fangs piercing my lips as I bit down, seething in fury, I advanced on the women. The light colored one whimpered as she watched me from her obsidian eyes.
Behind me, the Vampire with the aquamarine eyes called out. “Valkyrie, please, stop. They are not your enemies…”
His words were nothing to me. I was in control, and I knew what I had to do. Grabbing the silvery chain, I allowed the flame in my palm to rise in temperature until the fire burned so hot I could see heat waves around it. The metal melted away in my hand, stinging as it did so. I knew it didn’t cause me pain. It was my mind creating pain from memories. Desmond thought he’d created a metal that my flames could not affect, but he’d had no idea what the real power of my fire could unleash.
Lifting my eyes to the dark skinned woman as her left ankle fell back against the other, I said, “I am not here to harm you. My fight is with the ones who have done this to you.”
I saw the relief that washed through her eyes. She knew she had been right to hope I had come to help them. In a sense, I had not come to help them, instead, I had wandered upon them. Once I had seen them, in their torturous bonds, I was compelled by the goodness that still lived within me to help them. Once all but one chain remained holding the dark skinned woman up, I was surprised when one of the four vampires stood beneath the woman, ready to catch her. At first, the woman seemed close to telling him to get away. I didn’t blame her.
After all, it was at the hands of one of his kind that she had endured torture. As she fell into his arms, I saw the relief that flooded her features. I knew exactly how she felt. I too had felt the atrophy of my muscles as I had hung in that mine shaft not so very long ago. Moving on until all but one of the women had been freed from their bonds, I began melting the chains of the fifth woman. She was small, and young in appearance.
Her golden tan skin was marred with blood and wounds. Her dark blond hair hung in clumps of blood around her bruised face. Her right eye was so swollen she couldn’t even open it. When the last of her chains melted in my hand, I stepped forward to catch her as she fell. She looked up at me with her one good eye. She had eyes like a doe. Big and soft brown. She sniffled in my arms, and I felt the anger stir within me once again as some maternal instinct inside of me came to life.
I would kill Desmond for what he had done to these women, as well as what he had done to me. I could not wait for the day to come when I would finally exact my revenge from him. I would pass judgment upon his soul, and he would writhe in pain at my feet. I began to head towards the gap in the wall, when the small hand of the woman I carried touched my arm.<
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“Please. We need to rescue the others.” I stared down into her doe brown eye in surprise.
“There are others still here?” I was stunned. Looking around, I saw no other way in or out of this cavern besides the round hole I had come through.
Nodding her head, the brown eyed girl lifted a weak arm and pointed toward the farthest corner. “There is a path there. We must hurry. No one can know of it.”
I nodded to her. Walking in the direction she had indicated, I ignored the questions from Villart’s men. As I neared the red clay covered wall of the cavern, I shook my head in confusion. There was nothing there except a small pool of sparkling blue water.
“I’m sorry, but I see no doorway…”
The young woman in my arms interrupted me. “There, in the water. You must go into the water.”
Frowning, I stared at the breathtakingly blue water for a long moment. Glancing down at her wounded body, I began to shake my head. Behind me, the dark skinned woman I had freed first called to me.
“Please, listen to her. Jump into the water.”
Sighing, I retracted my wings as I prepared to do as they instructed me. Taking a breath, I jumped feet first into the pool of water. I did not expect what I experienced next. Like a siphon, I was sucked downward into the water. The pool of water was narrow, like a tube, and as I was sucked down, holding onto the small woman, the tube seemed to curve. At the end of the curve, I felt myself propelled into the air from the pressure. Acting quickly, I rotated my body so that I landed on my feet, still clutching the woman in my arms.
Valkyrie Divided (Pyralis Book 2) Page 2