by Amy Hopkins
Felicity backed up, eyes wide and frantic. “Lies. It’s all lies. I don’t need any help!” She whirled toward the bound figure. “I keep telling you, I’m fine!” she screeched.
“I know you love him, Felicity.” Amelia’s voice drew Felicity’s attention, and the girl spun unsteadily toward her. “I know you do. I did, too. But it’s a trick, Felicity.” Amelia kept her voice low and soothing. “Tobias used it on me, too. He used a cupid’s arrow, Felicity. Those feelings, that love you have for him? It feels so real…”
Penny crept forward, drawing the lead arrow from her belt and gripping it in her hand.
“So...real,” Felicity murmured. She lowered the gun. “Feels so real.”
“It’s not real,” Amelia crooned. “None of it’s real. Felicity, you’re a good person. You are. Tobias made you do those things. He tricked you with magic.”
“Magic.” Felicity took another step, foot dragging.
“You feeling a bit sleepy, lass?” Red asked cheerfully.
With that, Felicity collapsed. Red stepped up behind her, flicking a golden pocket watch in his hand.
Penny had to wrench her eyes away before she, too, was lost. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“It was in my pocket!” Red cracked up at his own joke. “But seriously, I saw it sitting next to the Hand and thought it might be just what we needed. Was I wrong?”
“Enough chatter,” Cisco said. He nudged Felicity’s unconscious form with his foot. “Let’s do it.”
Penny knelt and took Felicity’s arm. She used the arrowhead to scratch it, drawing a thin line of blood to the surface of her pale skin. “Let’s hope that works.” She lowered Felicity to the ground. “Red, take her.”
Penny stood and hurried over to Felicity’s hostage. Boots was already tugging at the ropes, using her long fangs to loosen the bindings tying her hands together. Penny tugged them free and leaned around.
“You’re gagged?” Penny watched, stunned, as Special Agent Karen Delouise undid the cloth tied around her mouth.
“Blech. It wasn’t even clean.” Delouise looked around. “Is she ok?”
Penny ignored the question, looking around the sparsely furnished room. “Where is the other woman?”
“It’s just us.” The agent stretched her arms out. “Everyone else has already gone.”
“But she was talking to—”
“Herself.” Delouise stood and walked over to the girl, crouching beside her unconscious form. “She knew something wasn’t right. She was trying to fight it.”
“I swear, that arrow had better work,” Amelia growled. Her eyes were suspiciously bright.
“Aye, and if not?” Red leaned over. “Felicity, lass, it’s almost time to wake up. When you do, ye’ll have a mighty craving for Twinkies, and ye’ll have a healthy dose of disgust every time you think of that gobshite, Tobias. Now…” He snapped his fingers. “Wake up!”
Felicity’s eyes fluttered open, lashes dark on her white face. “What...what happened?”
“How do you feel?” Penny asked.
The younger girl sat, shaking her head slowly. “I feel...like I’ve been in a dream. Like…” She looked around, and what little color left in her cheeks vanished. “Oh, God. What have I done?”
“You kept me alive, for a start.” Agent Delouise helped Felicity to her feet. “I know you’re hurting, kid, but we don’t have time to deal with that now.”
Felicity's eyes widened, and she gasped. “The summoning!” Her stomach growled loudly to punctuate her words, and she blushed. “Sorry. I’d kill for a Twinkie right now.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
They took Agent Delouise’s car, although Penny regretted letting her drive. She clung to the door handle of the tiny vehicle, Cisco practically sitting on her lap next to Amelia and Red.
“They’re doing it at the waterfront,” Delouise explained as they screamed down Main Street. “At dusk.”
Penny eyed the orange sky. “That doesn’t leave us much time,” she called.
The car screeched to a stop, and Penny peered out anxiously. They were still on Main, the traffic backed up three streets behind the edge of the Willamette River.
“Oh, no.” Amelia pounded on the door. “We have to stop here. The bridge party will have traffic stopped for miles!”
“Bridge party?” Agent Delouise snapped. “That’s today?”
“What the hell is a bridge party?” Penny demanded.
Delouise quickly explained that after a six-month upgrade, the Hawthorne Bridge was open to foot traffic for only a single night. The city had organized food trucks and street performers in celebration of the upgrade and expected thousands of locals to attend the event.
“That’s why he chose here,” Felicity admitted quietly. She twisted around in the front seat to look back at Penny. “He wants to set the vampire loose here, during the festival.”
Delouise leaned on the horn. Then, seeing no break in the traffic, she slammed the car into reverse.
She maneuvered out of her spot in traffic, heedless of the horns blasting around her, and drove into a side street, then up onto a sidewalk.
“You can’t park here!” Cisco opened the door and tumbled out. He pointed at the towering building next to them. “You’ve just illegally parked at a courthouse.”
“It’s an immigration court. They don’t deal with traffic offenses.” Agent Delouise winked, then popped the trunk of her car. She started tossing things to Cisco to hand out.
“Holy-water grenades. Even if it’s not a vamp, it’ll do damage. Bullets… Oh, wait, I’m not giving you a gun.” She ignored Red’s disappointed grunt. “Solar flares, stakes and—you’ve got stakes? Give those back, then.”
Penny rolled her shoulders under the weight of the added weapons. “I can’t carry all this,” she admitted.
“What’s in the bag?” Agent Delouise frowned. “Whatever it is, princess, you don’t need it.”
Penny lifted an eyebrow. “Boots?” she called.
Agent Delouise started when the bag wriggled and Boots raised her head. The serpent gave her a toothy smile.
“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t know. Can she help?”
Penny nodded. She didn’t know what Boots was capable of but she knew her friend would have her back, no matter what.
“Let’s do this.”
As they ran toward the bridge, the crowd grew. Penny desperately searched for any hint of danger, but her senses were flooded by the bright lights and loud music, mingled with the dull roar of traffic and the honking of boats below.
Behind her, the raucous call of bagpipes grew until the musician whizzed past, balancing on a unicycle as he played.
“Where are they?” she yelled, struggling to make herself heard over the cacophony. Cisco looked as frustrated as she felt.
“Tobias said the waterfront,” Felicity pointed to the edge of the bridge. “He’ll need a quiet spot to cast the spell.”
Penny tugged on Cisco’s arm, and he hollered for the others. They backed away from the crowd, clustered together so they didn’t get separated. Spying a narrow flight of steps to the street below the bridge, Penny darted down and looked around. “Nothing!” She cursed, turning to Felicity in desperation. “He didn’t say where?”
Felicity’s big eyes filled. “I swear, he didn’t. I don’t think he even knew. He was just going to find a quiet spot on the waterfront to summon the vampire. That was all he told us.”
“Why does he need to be on the waterfront?” Penny asked. That didn’t make sense. Vampires didn’t need water.
Boots jostled in the bag, and Penny slid it off her shoulder. She set it down, allowing Boots to get out and stretch. “Look, I think we should split up. We can go in groups of three—one upriver, one down.”
“That’s good in theory.” Cisco ran his eyes over the water. “But what if he’s on the other side of the river? We could be miles off course.”
Boots nudged Penny’s foot. “Not now,
Boots. Look, I know it’s not a perfect plan, but it’s all we’ve got. We can do this, or we can stick together and only cover half the ground.”
A sharp tug on the cuff of Penny’s pants made her look down. Boots pulled harder, undulating her body backward as she yanked at Penny’s leg. “Or we could follow the snake.”
“Anybody got a better idea?” Delouise asked. Without waiting for an answer, she headed off. “Let’s hope the rainbow here leads us to our pot of gold.”
Penny spotted a tall figure through the trees. He pushed back his hood and looked out at the small group before him. “Tonight is a momentous occasion!”
Tobias’s voice rang out clear in the night. Penny couldn’t resist a glance at Felicity. The girl’s eyes burned with hatred.
Guess the arrow did its job, then. She turned her attention back to Tobias.
“The world will know who we are. They will know—”
A flash at the corner of her eye distracted Penny for the briefest of moments. She didn’t see Tobias fall. Agent Delouise stepped out of the trees, looking down on the convulsing pile. The dozen watchers scrambled to their feet and she raised a second hand, this one pointing a gun at them.
“Steady, kids.” Delouise fished a silver arrow from Tobias’s sleeve and held it up. Then she snapped it in half.
As one, the small crowd stepped back. Girls clutched their heads, shaking them in bewilderment. The boys blinked, confused. None rushed to the rescue of their leader.
Penny rushed forward as Agent Delouise flipped the limp Tobias onto his stomach. She snapped a cuff around his wrist as he stirred and began to laugh.
“You’re too late,” he gasped. He lifted his eyes to Penny, a brightly rigid grin shining out below manic eyes. “Too late!”
“You set a vampire loose on those people?” Penny hissed. “How could you, you piece of shit?”
Tobias laughed even harder. “No! Are you daft?” He suddenly sobered, though the grin didn’t fade. “That spell they gave me had so much more power than that? Why vampires? Did they think I was too weak for anything bigger? That I couldn’t do it?” Tobias’s eyes rolled back as he dissolved into laughter again.
“Agent Delouise?” Penny stepped back as the ground beneath her trembled. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” That admission sent a chill into Penny’s bones.
Boots slithered carefully toward the water’s edge, her tongue flickering in and out as she tasted the air. Then, with a sudden, coiling spring too fast to comprehend, she shot through the air, slamming into Penny’s chest and sending her sprawling on the ground. “Boots? What the—”
Something rose, blocking the lights from the other side of the water. Penny felt it more than saw it—a creature so immense that when it moved, the world moved with it. Someone screamed.
An inhuman screech bellowed through the air, and a long, black limb slammed into the ground, leaving a gash in the grass bigger than a man. It hit right where Penny had been standing a moment earlier.
The limb rose again to reveal lines of suckers attached to the bottom. The tentacle wrapped around a tree, pulling it free from the ground and then letting it fall.
The beast rose, and its bulbous head and sharp beak flopped onto the riverbank.
Tobias’s laughter rang out again. “It’s a Kraken,” he wheezed. “I summoned a goddamn Kraken. Take that, bitches!”
Penny dove to one side as another attack came. Nearby, the revelers on the bridge had begun to notice. Screams rang out, pulling the Kraken’s attention.
Penny watched the beast turn, heart in her mouth. “We can’t let it go!”
“It doesn’t have a bloody steering wheel!” Red yelled. “What do you want us to do?”
Penny grabbed at her belt. Holy water. Stakes. Crosses. Ah! Gotcha! She drew out a silver throwing dagger and hurled it at the Kraken. It bounced off the rubbery skin harmlessly. “Dammit!”
Agent Delouise lifted her gun and fired three rounds at the beast. It stopped and swung its head slowly back. “Shit. Maybe shouldn’t have done that.”
“Cisco!” Penny yelled. “Amelia, Red!” She waved an arm, and with worried glances behind them, her friends ran to her. To her relief, Boots also appeared. She’d lost sight of the snake in the chaos.
“This is out of control,” Cisco gasped. The monster flailed and smashed down another tentacle, tearing the branches off one side of a pine tree.
Still lying prone, Tobias yelled. “It’s over, suckers! The End Times are here, and they will destroy you!”
“We brought half the goddamn weapons room with us,” Penny reminded them. “And we’ve been training for this.” She grabbed Cisco’s backpack and held it upside down, shaking it. Weapons scattered on the ground as she looked for anything that might help.
“Solar flares. That’ll distract it, maybe blind it. Grenades—I’ll take one. Cisco, crossbow?”
Cisco passed her the weapon. Penny pulled it out and grabbed a bolt, then tossed the bow aside and darted back into the bag.
“Duct tape?” Amelia asked incredulously when Penny resurfaced. “What, are you gonna tie the Kraken up and stick it in the trunk?”
Penny ignored her. She used the tape to bind the grenade to the bolt. It would no longer fit in the crossbow, but it would suit her purpose perfectly. She thrust it through her belt.
“Red, you were the best in sword practice. You think you can lower our threat from an eight to a seven?”
Red lifted the sword in a white-knuckled grip. “This seemed like a good idea back at the Academy, Penny, but I don’t think I can cut through that.” He jerked his head at the Kraken.
“Of course, you can. Just get me close.” Penny palmed a wooden stake in one hand, a holy water grenade in the other. “Boots? Stay.” She dropped to a knee. “I mean it. I might need you to come rescue me.”
The snake hissed gently and slowly dipped her head in agreement. Penny patted her briskly, then stood. She looked at Red. “Do your best to take off a limb or two.”
“What do we do?” Amelia asked.
Penny grinned. “Flambé that sucker.” She unclipped the small flamethrower from her belt and threw it to Cisco. “See you soon!”
“This isn’t how you trust a team, you know!” Cisco yelled.
Penny yelled back, “Yes, it is! I’m trusting you to have my back!” To Agent Delouise, she yelled, “Shoot it again!”
Two more shots rang out. Whatever Delouise said in response was drowned out by another almighty screech as two tentacles rose, then slammed down. Penny dove to the left, Delouise to the right. As the slimy limb began to pull back, Penny slipped a dagger from her vampire kit and plunged it into the rubbery flesh.
The creature shrieked again.
The tentacle jerked and writhed for a moment before slipping back into the river but another whipped out, wrapping around Penny’s waist and yanking her into the air.
She sucked in a breath a moment before icy water closed around her, bubbles rushing past as the beast shook her. Penny’s stomach lurched and she was in the air again, the rubbery suckers against her skin pressing tighter by the second.
Penny plunged the knife into the thick muscles around her waist and the Kraken flinched. Toward the shore, flames glowed and the Kraken screamed, its grip loosening on Penny as it turned to the new threat.
Penny held on, wrapping her arms around the tentacle as it rose higher. Securing her legs, she loosened her grip a little and began to slide.
It was a slow process. Twice, the Kraken dumped her in the water before lifting the limb again, but even in the midst of almost drowning, falling, and being crushed against the riverbank, Penny knew the creature wasn’t paying attention to her.
Flares went off, making the Kraken reel and screech. The smell of burnt oil permeated the air, and once Penny saw a tentacle swing past missing its tip. “Go, Red!”
It was crunch time. Water lapped at her waist, and the limb she grabbed had grown too wide to w
rap her arms around securely. Twisting, Penny saw the black orbs and gaping beak of the creature.
“Steady,” she said, mostly to herself. She twisted her body, holding on with one arm and yanking the grenade-stake from her weapons belt. She held it up, wavering as the Kraken twitched and screamed.
The limb beneath her tensed. No! Don’t move yet! It was now or never. Ripping the pin out with her teeth, Penny hissed out a fast breath, then threw. Her feet lost purchase as the beast flung the tentacle she stood on toward the shore.
Her hands slipped, unable to grip the smooth, rubbery flesh. She plunged into the water, struggled to the surface under the weight of her wet clothes, then sank again.
Her arms flailed, pushing her back up to the roiling surface to gasp for air.
A shadow crossed over Penny, blocking the light. An explosion of bubbles threw her back down before an enormous, writhing weight slammed into her, trapping her under the water.
It had worked, she realized, even as a mess of suckers and limbs closed around her. The Kraken fell. It worked!
Penny’s lungs strained. Her ears buzzed as her body screamed and finally let out the last of her precious air in a rush of bubbles.
The darkness closed around her as a final thought drifted through her mind. I don’t want to go home.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Penny came to, coughing dank water into a puddle on the sand. The pulsing in her head took up a rhythmic beat.
“Pull us up!” The scream beside her seemed distant, then she rose into the air.
Penny wondered if she had died and this was her passage into the afterlife.
Does it have to be so noisy? The crisp, pulsing beat grew louder and made Penny think of that movie, the one where everyone was at war, and a chopper had come to collect the injured.
“Let’s go!”
Movement clutched at her gut.
Wait. That is a chopper. She tried to ask what was going on, but the words came out as a garbled moan.
“Kid?” She opened her eyes to find a helmeted face peering into hers. “She’s alive!” The face disappeared, and darkness fluttered back in. As she drifted off, she imagined the voice again. “Does anyone know how to get the snake to fill up the river again?”