by Casey Lane
Mace didn't seem to appreciate the familiarity. “He was your handler?"
Lyra gave a curt nod. "He was. Until he ran away and became the Great Gatsby of real estate, apparently."
Piers grinned. Which was especially creepy for Lyra, having only seen her mentor smile on several key occasions. Usually his glee was reserved for the hunter’s highest profile kills.
"Lyra, Lyra. So dramatic, it's as if nothing has changed from those teenage years of yours. Besides, I didn't run. I regrouped."
Mace pursed his lips. "That sounds like something a person who ran away from their responsibilities would say."
Piers' smile was gone. "You can't run away when there's nothing to run away from. The Order was no longer in power, and they could no longer protect us."
Lyra's emotions bounced around like a pinball in her brain. "If protecting me was so important, I don't see why... I don't understand how you could've abandoned me, when I had no clue–"
Piers stood up and slammed his hands on the desk. "I must've done something right if you survived that bomb." He smirked. "I could never teach you self-reliance. You had to earn it for yourself."
Mace stepped forward and met her former handler eye-to-eye. "Enough of the therapy session. Tell us about the bombs, Piers. Or is it Coleridge?"
The man behind the desk once again gave a look of self-satisfaction. "They are really quite remarkable. Ancient mystical weapons combined with modern technology. The remnants of the Order cooked them up a few years back. Before I killed the lot of them."
Lyra's heart sank even further. While she'd never had much love for the Order and their rules that effectively stamped out her teenage years, she wasn't about to murder them.
"What happened to you, Piers? You wanted to protect humanity. None of this makes sense."
Piers stood up tall. "You always had my intentions wrong, Lyra. Protecting humanity and snuffing out the unhuman threat are completely different animals." He looked down on her like a small child who'd misbehaved. "I'm not surprised that you're exactly the same as you were as a teenager. You're still an idealist. And you still can't tell when you're walking right into a trap."
With all of the feelings bubbling in her body, only then did Lyra hear the footsteps approaching from the other end of the hall. Only then did she know that Piers was absolutely right.
Chapter Fifteen
Lyra crouched low as she heard the forces start to gather outside of Piers' office. As she turned back to the man who made her what she was today, he had completely disappeared.
She gritted her teeth. "He did always have a flair for the dramatic." She tried to breathe out the flood of emotions. "I told you we should've snuck in. There are fewer surprises that way."
Mace's knuckles cracked as he formed tight fists. "We should run before more of them show up."
She shook her head. "No. We make our stand here. Help me move this desk."
Mace grumbled. "I don't think it's a good idea."
She let out an exasperated sigh. "Your plan got us into this; let my plan get us out. If we block the doors, they're going to bottleneck. Then we can take them out from there." She took one end of the desk. "Now help me!"
Mace grabbed the other end and they easily hauled the massive piece of furniture in front of one door.
"Gee, your handler sure is a nice guy. I can see where you got all of your compassion and grace."
Lyra sneered at the vampire as her comm buzzed in her ear. "This is Rhea, you two. Doug has developed the technology to track magic that originated from the Order."
Lyra grunted as she lifted a bookcase into the air. "You have the technology to track special magic, but you couldn’t get us a blueprint so we could sneak in and not get into this mess? No."
Doug ignored her as he spoke over the comm. "From what I can tell, these bombs are working on a sort of magical countdown. If my calculations are correct, we have until around sunset until these things go off."
Mace helped Lyra set the shelf down in front of the other entrance. “He goes by Coleridge. He has bombs that go off at sunset. Piers sure is a poetic guy.”
Lyra suppressed a desire to slap Mace, opting to use her anger for more productive purposes. She prepared to fight whatever it was that came in through those doors.
She heard a heavy metal thunk against the door with the desk braced in front of it. A small line of cracks began to appear on their side. Lyra's pulse quickened as the crack expanded. And expanded. And expanded. Until the top third of the door broke away and landed with a thump in the office. Lyra didn't hesitate. The moment the dozen or so men on the other side of the door were revealed, she leapt into action. With a sprint and a spin, she roundhouse kicked the first guard in the throat, slumping him over in the small opening. As she was about to strike again, a blue blast of light shot over her shoulder, and stunned the next guard.
He collapsed unconscious, and Lyra turned back toward Mace with a death glare. "A little warning next time would be nice."
The vampire held a more portable version of the weapon from the other day in his hands.
"I wasn't going to hit you."
Lyra grumbled to herself. "The next time I get invited to work with a super-secret team that has cool guns, they damn well better give me one."
As a third and fourth guard pushed past their unconscious coworkers and into the room, Lyra waited for one to approach her, while Mace aimed his weapon at the other.
She recognized the guard who walked her way from the elevator. "You sure you don't want to take off that suit jacket and fold it up somewhere nice for your funeral?"
The man's gruff voice didn't seem to have a sense of humor. "This won't take long."
Lyra smirked. "You don't know how right you are."
As the man charged for her, she wound back her fist and slammed it with all her force into his charging sternum. He flew farther and harder than she expected, slamming into and breaking in half the desk that blocked the doorway. The remaining guards charged into the room as Mace fired his weapon on as many targets as he could. Half a dozen fell within a matter of seconds, and the other three surrounded Lyra. When they grabbed for her, she rolled away with ease, silently happy that her legs didn't cramp up after the painful events of a few days ago. She grabbed half of the massive desk from under the hulking man in the suit and whipped it as hard as she could at the remaining three. The heavy projectile caught two of them in the head and knocked them unconscious immediately. The third one attempted to sprint toward her to gain an advantage, but Mace's blue blaster took him down before he could get within a few feet.
Lyra breathed heavily. "Not bad. I thought Dougie Boy said that thing would liquefy people."
Mace nodded. "Not if you turn it to stun." He looked at the bodies piled high in one entryway. "You know, we're still trapped."
She shrugged. "At least there aren't any good ways to get in."
As she spoke, an image she didn't expect came into view through the outside windows. Hanging from bungee cords and swinging toward them was another team of guards. As they came crashing through, glass shattered in every direction. A hail of gunfire aimed squarely at Mace ripped through the room. One shot collided with his wrist, sending the futuristic weapon sliding across the floor.
Lyra dove to her side to avoid the gunfire and grabbed the weapon. She rolled away from two bungeed attackers and pointed the weapon upward. Her aim was true, sending a hot blast of blue energy just to the side of a smoke detector.
As the sprinklers kicked in, Lyra attempted to take advantage of the distraction. She crouched and swung her leg wildly, knocking down several guards. As she tried to leap upon them, two other guards grabbed her by the waist and used plastic ties to bind her arms together. Before she could use her strength to rip them off, the guards threw her to the ground and bound her legs as well. As she turned her head to the side, she could see that Mace was bloody and bound as well. One of the attackers ripped at her ear and yanked out the embedded com
m device. Getting in touch with Doug and Rhea was their only chance of locating and disabling Piers’ bombs. She watched as a black combat boot stomped out those hopes right in front of her face.
Chapter Sixteen
As Lyra felt the cold metal pressing against her wrists and ankles, she thought back to the last time she'd worn this many shackles. After months of hunting down a hell demon who was looking to send the entirety of Chicago to his native land, she discovered the foul beast's lair only to be captured. The hairy, disgusting monstrosity from below had intentions to boil Lyra to death. He'd just made one mistake: molten metal was pretty handy at breaking chains too. She was surprised by how quickly the creature dissolved in his own extremely hot contraption.
But she couldn't count on a mistake this time. After all, Piers always seemed to think of everything. She stood beside Mace, who was in his own set of chains and shackles. The vampire was quiet and pensive-looking. She wondered if Piers had any sort of plans for the prince. Perhaps, after demonstrating his show of power in Chicago, he'd be able to ransom off the unhuman royalty to the highest bidder. If not to the Tuscan clan, then maybe to one of its rivals.
Lyra had an itch on her lower back, right next to several of the bruises she’d sustained in the office. She absentmindedly reached for the irritated skin before the length of her chains kept her from doing so. She gave a frustrated grunt and yanked once again at her arm and leg restraints. She both could and couldn't believe that her former handler was capable of this. She started to question the years she'd spent under his tutelage. Had she imagined compassion in the man? He seemed gentle enough when helping her to bandage her wounds and ice her bruises. Though, in a way, he had been responsible for many of those injuries through their quests to tamp down the vampire scourge. But the man also let her talk about girly teenage things, and he'd at least played along on half a dozen occasions. But were all of those moments of kindness and goodness in the man all a front? Had it all been about using her to kill unhumans?
Mace turned toward her, as if he could read her troubling thoughts. "Don't go second-guessing yourself, Lyra. You've done a whole lot of good in this world."
Lyra shook her head. "I don't know. I'm not sure anymore. What if I was actually on the wrong side all along?" She chuckled to herself. "All this time I thought I was one of the good guys. I guess not.”
Despite his motionlessness, Lyra could tell that Mace wanted to reach out and comfort her. He did the best he could given the conditions with his eyes alone. "I know your kill list. You slayed some murdering assholes, my father included. I would say that's a lot of notches in the win column. Don't let Piers changing sides make you doubt yourself."
Lyra wanted to think about every stake she'd put through a vampire's heart. She thought that trying to remember her kills would help her assess their worthiness. But there were so many she didn't remember. So many she couldn't remember; after all, it was easier just to forget about how much blood she'd spilled over the years. That could make it impossible for her to know if she was working for the forces of good or someone else.
Lyra struggled at her restraints once again. "And how many notches in the lose column would be acceptable, Mace? Is killing five innocent vampires okay? How about 10? Murder one family man here. Slaughter a vamp who works for a nonprofit there? I don’t think there’s an appropriate answer here, Your Worshipfulness."
Mace looked deep into her eyes. He barely knew her, and yet, the way his eyes dug so deep without judgment, she wondered if she actually could trust the occasionally lying vampire prince.
He looked away for a moment and seemed to turn inward. "Nobody is innocent. Nobody."
There was a long bit of silence. In a room without windows, Lyra tried to guess at how much time they had left until sundown. At most, they had four hours. But it was much more likely that in two to three hours, a large portion of the city’s unhuman population would be no more.
As Lyra looked around the room for the hundredth time trying to see if Piers let something accidentally slip through the cracks, something did actually come slipping through the cracks. In fact, a loudly buzzing insect the size of a large fly came in through a small drainage grate on the far side of the room. In the silence, the insect's wing-flapping echoed through the chamber. The strange thing was, the bug didn't seem to be flying around at random as most creatures do. It appeared to be coming straight for them. The insect made quick time across the room and landed upon Mace's shoulder. Lyra watched the bug more closely. It seemed to have a sort of mechanical glow to it. She blinked twice when she watched the winged creature stand up on its hind legs and give a sort of salute.
A familiar voice came from the tiny creature's mouth. "Phew. It was tough to find you two.” One of Doug's contraptions was projecting the bearded man's voice. "You guys ready to get out of here?"
Chapter Seventeen
It took a few seconds before Lyra caught herself with her mouth hanging wide open. The insect wasn't a pest at all. It was their way out.
Mace grinned. "I didn't know your latest toy was already finished, Doug. It's ugly as hell."
Lyra would've crossed her arms if she could have. "You mean, you knew that Sandwich Man had a way of finding us and you didn't say anything about it to me?"
The vampire gave a restrained shrug. "Like I said, I didn't know it was done."
Lyra huffed, wondering if she should use her first free moment to scratch the itch on her back or slap her fellow captive.
Doug's voice piped out of the insect once again. "I had a little incentive to finish it quickly. But I think you're really going to like my next trick."
The rear of the robotic insect opened up like a hatch. Suddenly, barely visible nanobots shot out of the opening. Half of them went for the lock that was holding Mace's chains together, and the other half rallied toward Lyra's. As the tiny devices entered the keyhole, Lyra could feel her chains loosen. The restraints hummed as the nanobots did their work. Once her arms were loose enough, she pulled herself free and finally scratched her nagging itch.
Mace shook his head and smiled. "Those things are incredible."
"Yeah, Dougie Boy, you've exceeded my high expectations." Lyra worked her legs out of the now-unlocked restraints. "Would you happen to know how many guards are out there?"
A tiny laugh escaped the tiny robot. "How many guards? 10. How many conscious guards? Zero."
Lyra's forehead wrinkled. "Are you telling me your bug knows kung fu or something?"
With their tasks finished, the nanobots joined together and headed for the lock of the cell door.
The robotic insect hovered above Mace and headed for the door. "I may or may not have used my nanobots to enter through their nasal cavities and knock them unconscious from the inside."
Even Mace seemed impressed about that one. "Wow. How much did it cost to make this batch of bots?"
"If I tell you, then Rhea will hear. And if Rhea hears the bill, I have a feeling I'm not going to live to see tomorrow."
Mace laughed and rolled his shoulders. "Fair enough." He glanced toward Lyra. "You ready, hero?"
Lyra smirked. "Sure."
The insect led the way as they walked through the now-open door and passed the unconscious guards.
Lyra tensed and untensed her tight hamstrings as she walked. "Did you find the bombs?"
The insect performed a happy spin. "Good news on that front. We've neutralized three out of five of them, but the other two disappeared before we could get a full read on them. One is on the North Side, while the other is downtown near the Tribune Tower."
A sense of hope welled up within Lyra. Maybe they could actually stop Piers after all. She just didn't know if she was up for killing the man who taught her everything.
She looked at the insect, only then realizing the absurdity of asking questions to a fly. "Are there enough of the bots to stop both bombs?"
"These are actually the only ones I–"
A blast of electricity lit up the
air and slammed hard into the robot. Lyra and Mace dove in opposite directions to avoid the attack, but Doug's toys weren't so lucky. Lyra looked up to see the bearded man's creation producing a tiny explosion as it landed in a pile of ash on the ground. Lyra and Mace shared a glance before they discovered the source of the electricity. Across the dimly lit hall, they saw the building's receptionist. The woman who had seemed so harmless earlier now had blue magical light swirling around her outstretched hands. As another burst of lightning came their way, Lyra and Mace ducked around the nearest corner and crouched by the base of the wall.
The air buzzed with an electrical current, causing the hair on Lyra's arms to stand straight up.
"So much for the bots." She felt her heartbeat quicken. "We're toast if we go near her. She could hold us off for hours."
Mace pursed his lips. "I know."
"Got any bright ideas? And this is not the time for a lightning pun, by the way."
Mace looked left and right, and then a plan seemed to strike him. "I do have a bright idea. But you're going to need to hold her off for a couple of minutes."
"Wait, what?"
"Thanks for your help!"
Before she could stop him, Mace was on his feet and sprinting back in the direction of their cell.
Lyra cursed his sexy behind as he turned the corner and out of sight. "Keep her occupied. Great."
Just then, the receptionist turned the corner and fired her magic once more.
Lyra sprung off the wall and barely rolled under the blast.
When her attacker geared up for another charge, Lyra was ready this time. Not only was she able to duck under the hot burst of lightning, but on the way to standing, she pulled a gun from the holster of one of the unconscious guards. She fired several shots at the receptionist, and while the witch was able to block them with magic, the receptionist was forced to retreat back around the corner.