by Jenny Allen
Lilith tried to yank her arm away but Haverty’s grip felt like it could crush her bones at any second. Panic started to set in as she looked desperately for something that would help her, anything. Haverty’s corpse slowly stood up from his chair looking a little disorientated. Lilith kicked at his unsteady legs and pulled as hard as she could. Haverty’s nails raked deep, bloody furrows down her right arm, but Lilith bit back the scream in her throat and kept pulling. His fingers slid on the blood and finally fell away. Lilith stumbled backwards, her arms swinging wide trying to keep her balance.
For some reason, Haverty was slower than the other corpses in the main room, but still just as strong. She had no intention in finding out why right now. She just wanted to get the hell out of there.
“Stop playing with it and move your ass, Adams!” Cohen was struggling with the door, sweat beading across his forehead, muscles trembling with fatigue. Lilith had a split second of indecision and remembered Cohen’s comment in the stairwell.
Was she really willing to leave him to die just to save her own skin? Could she live with that? No matter what she thought of Cohen, when he had the chance to do the same thing, he gave it up to save her. She couldn’t justify leaving him behind anymore. Especially not after that look of pure horror and desperation on his face when Farren was about to kill her. Hopefully the anchor would hold them both.
With her mind made up, she ran up, snatching her gun off the ground. It may only have two bullets but it was better than nothing. She holstered it and shoved the door as it bounced in the frame.
“I only found one clamp. We have to go together. There’s no way you can climb down that rope before they cut it or pull you up. It’s the only way.” There was one frozen moment of complete surprise on Cohen’s face and it was the most genuine thing she had ever seen from him.
The door splintered, a bloody, clawed hand shoved through, reaching and grasping. “Shit. Looks like it’s time to go.”
Cohen snatched the clamp out of Lilith’s hand and for a second she just stood there in shock. After everything, he was just gonna leave her here to die? Son of a bitch. Cohen kicked hard at Haverty’s head, sending him careening into the desk and then whipped around to face Lilith.
“Come the fuck on! That door’s not gonna hold!” Cohen snatched her left arm, making the bullet wound in her shoulder scream fire, and pulled her toward the window. Andrew slapped the clamp onto the line and climbed up onto the sill. Lilith whirled to see the door fly to bits as the mob of corpses shoved their way into the room. It was like a scene in a horror movie. The “zombies” were all in various stages of decay, body parts dangling or just missing, filled with bullet holes, and some were just clawing their way along the floor.
An arm wrapped around her waist and then she was falling. Lilith’s stomach leapt to her throat as the floors flew by. Screams filled her ears and for a moment Lilith wondered why they weren’t fading until she realized they were her own. ‘Don’t look down. Don’t look down.’ She just kept repeating it to herself over and over.
So instead, she looked up to see hands grabbing for the line, pulling and tugging, making the rope start to swing. Then their bodies jerked as Cohen clicked the clamp into place, slowing them down. Lilith almost forgot how to breathe as her heart raced, blood pounding furiously in her ears. The jolt was so harsh that the hands gripping the line probably saved their lives. Otherwise, the anchor would probably have ripped right out of the wall. She was fairly certain the zombies weren’t trying to rescue them, but she was grateful for the assist anyway.
The line jerked again and Lilith looked up to see the dead hands pulling the rope up, bringing them closer. That was definitely a bad thing. She twisted to look down and her stomach lurched. They still had four floors to go. If the mob upstairs kept pulling, they wouldn’t have enough rope to reach the sidewalk. They’d just be stranded, dangling morsels waiting to be reeled in.
“Lilith. Grab on tight!” With fear strumming along every single nerve ending, Lilith wrapped her arms and legs around Cohen and squeezed her eyes shut with a silent prayer. It looked like they had two options, fall to their deaths or let the mob pull them up so they could be torn apart like Farren’s men. She’d take the instant death of falling any day.
Cohen released the clamp and they zoomed down the rest of the line. Lilith’s stomach lurched as the sidewalk rapidly came up to meet them. Just before they reached the end, Cohen engaged the clamp and their bodies jerked and swung, knocking the wind right out of her chest. Lilith almost lost her grip from the whiplash. She clung for dear life, nails digging into Cohen’s clothes. When she dared to open her eyes again, she saw they were dangling just one floor above the sidewalk. Of course, it was still a ten foot drop onto solid concrete.
“Hold on.” Cohen’s eyes met Lilith’s and for a brief second she saw something other than him simply wanting to save his own skin. Farren’s words echoed in her head. He’d found something he cared about. Either it was all an elaborate act or Cohen really didn’t have many friends.
Lilith tucked her head into his shoulder and held her breath as he let go of the clamp. Seconds later they were tumbling onto the sidewalk. Lilith rolled free, the deep nail scratches on her arm stinging as they slapped against the pavement. Then the dizzying pain as her shoulder hit, the bullet hole sending razor sharp pain right down to her fingertips. At least it wasn’t her head this time.
“About damn time! Can we please get the hell out of here!!!” Nicci was pacing the sidewalk nervously, eyes darting to the door and then back up to the window. She was shaking all over, her eyes wide and unblinking like a junkie going through withdrawl. Shock looked very similar whether it was physical or psychological.
Lilith scrambled to her feet and extended a hand to Cohen. To her surprise, he grabbed it, started to get up and then crumpled back to the ground. “Shit. I think I blew out my ankle.” Nicci and Lilith quickly flanked him, hauling Cohen up to his unsteady feet and then they were racing down the sidewalk.
They weren’t out of danger yet. There could be more of those things out here and they still hadn’t seen the puppet master. Lilith glanced up at the window with a feeling of dread. Sure enough, one of the corpses was standing up on this window sill, grabbing the rope as if trying to figure it out. “We need a cab. If those things come after us now we won’t be able to outrun them with Cohen injured.”
“Why not just circle back to the rental car?” Cohen grimaced with each step. “No sane cabbie is gonna stop for us in the shape we’re in.”
“Oh hell no! I am NOT going anywhere near that fucking building!” Nicci pushed them all forward with intense determination. “What the hell were those things and why the hell were they so strong??”
Lilith shook her head, desperately trying to get her brain working. “They were bodies being controlled by something or someone, I’m almost certain of it. They must be using 100 percent of their muscle power. With no survival instincts, they wouldn’t hold anything back. They’d use every ounce of strength regardless of the muscle damage that comes with it. That’s the only logical reason I can see that they’d be so damn strong.”
“Logical my ass! Those were dead bodies running around tearing limbs off people!! What part of that is logical?” Nicci just stared at the two of them, astounded that they weren’t just as freaked out as she was. Lilith could see the next question plain as day on Nicci’s face. ‘What the hell haven’t you been telling me?’, but before she could open her mouth, Cohen impatiently cut her off.
“Yes and someone figured out a way to make them move around like gross, He-man marionettes.” A wave of dizziness slapped Lilith in the face and she had to struggle to keep her balance. The adrenaline was wearing off and her numerous injuries were catching up to her.
“I need to stop. Let’s cut down this alley.”
“Stop? Are you crazy? We need to get the hell out of here? We can stop when we’re miles away from this hellhole. If we go up a few more blocks we can
get a cab!” Nicci’s voice was bordering on panic and Lilith didn’t blame her one bit.
“Nicci. Cohen can barely walk and my head feels like it’s been pounded in by a sledgehammer. We need a second to regroup.” Lilith’s words seemed to cut through a bit of Nicci’s panic. She just nodded and steered them closer to the buildings.
The trio made their way down a small path between two giant brick buildings that shielded it from the afternoon sun. They eased Cohen down onto an old milk crate and Lilith crouched down against the wall, putting her head between her knees. She just needed to catch her breath. Her head was pounding furiously as if a hammer was cracking her skull from the inside. Between her fall to the floor, Peisinoe’s musical brain knives and Farren pistol whipping her, she was surprised she wasn’t in a damn coma.
“Wait. Where’s Timothy?” Nicci’s voice was strained and tenuous, like she already knew the answer to the question but was praying she was wrong.
“He didn’t make it.” Lilith’s heart felt heavy in her chest, weighed down by all the death that surrounded her. Worse yet, she was gonna have to tell Chance. Chance. “Crap!” Lilith dug furiously into her pocket for her phone, hoping it hadn’t been damaged in the fall.
She jabbed at the screen, dialing his number from the call log with an edge of panic strumming along every nerve. If the zombie puppet master overheard the bit about the cipher, Chance could be in real danger. Every unanswered ring made her heart beat faster and faster. The generic voicemail chimed over the speaker and Lilith’s heart fell.
“Chance! You need to call me. Where the hell are you? Why aren’t you answering your phone?” Lilith paused as it dawned on her that voicemail wasn’t like a damn answering machine. It’s not like he could hear her while she was leaving a message. “Farren was behind the robbery but there’s another player on the board that can somehow control dead bodies to do their dirty work. Please be careful. Please be ok. I need you to be ok.”
Lilith could hear the desperation soaking her voice as she reluctantly jammed the button to end the call. She just stared at her phone as an awkward silence settled over the alley until Nicci finally ended it.
“Look, I know you have your reasons for keeping secrets, but I think you need to start sharing right fucking now. Weird ass chicks that scream like some supersonic bad guy in a comic book, super strong zombies, this guy’s happy-fluffy grandpa. I can’t help if I don’t know what the hell is going on.”
“Lilith, you’re bleeding pretty bad. You should patch those up.” Cohen looked her over with concern from his perch on the milk crate before calmly turning his attention to Nicci.
Finally, Lilith shook the dread of Chance’s fate long enough to look over her wounds. The bullet wound in her shoulder was still trickling blood, but the deep scratches on her right arm were far worse. As soon as she saw them, they started stinging like damn fire. There were four very deep, angry gouges down her right arm from elbow to wrist and they were bleeding like crazy. In fact, Lilith could see her messy trail of blood drops leading into the alley and pooling at her feet.
Begrudgingly, Andrew started giving Nicci the annotated version while Lilith tore at the bottom of her T-shirt, removing enough to bind her arm. He skipped the bit about his race, though he did tell her more about Peisinoe’s capabilities. He told her a scrubbed version of the events in Tennessee, the kidnapping, Gregor’s death and the deal they made with the anonymous council. Pretty much everything except the truly dangerous bits that really didn’t have much bearing on the immediate situation.
At the end of it, Nicci leaned back against the brick wall and slid down to the ground, her long ponytail spilling over her shoulder. Her sharp eyes narrowed on the blank wall across from them as her mind worked the puzzle. It was a lot to take in. Hell, even Lilith had a problem wrapping her head around it and she’d lived through it.
“I’d understand if you want to back out. No one knows who you are and you’ve already helped enough, Nicci. Just grab a cab and go back home.”
Nicci looked up sharply, focusing on Lilith. “And what the hell are you two gonna do? This wacked-out council isn’t gonna just let you walk away! They killed your father in cold blood. They have undead freaking cannon fodder that could tear you apart in the blink of an eye.”
“She’s right. Farren might be dead, but he wasn’t the only one that wanted that book.”
“Obviously.” Someone was controlling those deadly puppets. Of course they already had the book by now, but there was still something they would want. The knot of dread twisted in her stomach once again. “The attack happened just as you told Farren about the cipher.”
“Yeah…” He definitely wasn’t following her line of thinking.
“If they know about the cipher and they know Chance isn’t with us…”
“They could correctly assume that Chance is going after the cipher.” He nodded in agreement. “But no one else knows he went to Goditha.”
Lilith frowned and tilted her head at him. “I didn’t tell you where he was going.”
Cohen arched an eyebrow at her and just laughed. “Wow. You really think I’m stupid, don’t you. You told me he was going to get something. It had to be a good ways out of town because he hasn’t called you and you haven’t been worried about that. Where else would you keep something of value than a highly secured, private lab? Doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots.”
“Does anyone else on the council know all the details? About Goditha?” She was silently praying that she was just freaking out, that there could be a million mundane reasons why Chance hadn’t answered his phone. Hell, he could still be asleep in his hotel room or maybe he had to hand over his cell at the lab. After the recent crime scene, security was sure to be more intense.
“I never mentioned the lab by name, but I did state that I thought the cipher was somewhere in Tennessee. Any one of the elders could have done some digging and put it all together.” That definitely didn’t make her feel any better. “I’m sure Chance is fine. He’s more than capable of taking care of himself.” Lilith looked up as Cohen seemed to read her mind. Of course, he didn’t need to. He could feel her emotions and that told him plenty.
“What is in this damn book that is so important?!” Nicci surged back to her feet and started pacing again, ponytail swishing from side to side, eyes darting to the end of the alley every few seconds.
“There are legends about that book, but I don’t know what’s real and what’s not. Obviously my grandfather thought it was worth going around the council for. He wouldn’t make a play that risky without really believing it was worth it. As for the other elders…” Cohen leaned his head back against the stone and let out a small sigh. “All of them want it.”
“Luminita said that the information about Ashcroft came from Farren and… what was his name?” Lilith tried to work her way past the pain and cobwebs in her brain.
“Helton.” There was a serious look on Cohen’s face. “It could easily be Helton behind these monsters. It would make sense. He’s brutal, probably the most dangerous after Farren. Weird experimentation is definitely on his resume.”
“I just can’t imagine Duncan having some secret recipe to ultimate power tucked away in his diary.” Lilith frowned and rubbed at her pounding head. Then she noticed her breathing was more shallow than usual. It could just be the after effects, but it felt like something more. She didn’t have time for it. They needed answers.
“Duncan’s journals referenced the book several times, but only in connection to Mary, Ashcroft and his family. Sure, it might hold details…” Lilith paused just in time. She couldn’t blurt out anything about their species in front of Nicci. Not now that they’d just “come clean” about everything, supposedly. “…the council wouldn’t want to hit the general public, but I can’t see it containing anything powerful.”
“It’s very possible that it doesn’t. Several of the council members like Luminita would agree with you. They only want to keep the cipher
out of human hands, to secure their secrets. Farren, Helton and a couple others are power zealots. They are always chasing legends, but to openly attack each other and screw over the rest of the council, they have to have something more concrete about that book.”
Lilith rubbed at her temples as her head continued to pound. She was having trouble focusing on Cohen’s words, much less kick-starting her brain to find the answers. “Tell me about Helton.”
“Alexander Helton. At least that’s the name he uses now. He’s a bull dog with a hefty bite to back up his bark. He takes what he wants with brute force and his desires are eclectic. Not to say that he is all brawn. He was fairly infamous during World War 2 as a high ranking soldier and scientist. Wolfram Sievers was his name back then and he was the director of Ahnenerbe, a Nazi institution that studied the origins of the Aryan race and the occult.”
Nicci’s brow furrowed instantly. “Wait. The ‘Nazi Bluebeard’ Sievers? That’s impossible. He was tried and executed in Bavaria. Besides, even if it was a cover up, he’d be over a hundred years old by now.”
Lilith just stared at her, completely surprised that she not only recognized the name, but knew where he’d died.
“What?” Nicci definitely hadn’t missed Lilith’s dumbfounded stare. “Italy wasn’t completely immune from the war. A few of my relatives were killed by the SS in concentration camps, but my grandmother was tortured and killed inside Ahnenerbe during their genetic experiments. Sievers wasn’t just in charge, he liked to get his hands dirty.”
Nicci turned back to Cohen with a calculated look. She knew he was still holding things back and she wasn’t gonna hide that knowledge behind some benign smile, not after what just happened in Haverty’s apartment.