by TR Cameron
He merely shook his head. “Go. Now. Both of you.”
She was smiling as she headed to the basement to portal home, but the questions would not stop banging around her head. Why didn’t my parents tell me about Atreo, and where is he now?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
They’d explored every corner and crevice of her parents’ secret lair but discovered nothing more than what she’d found before. When the others had left, she’d tried the uniform on and discovered that it fit almost perfectly. It was lightweight but conveyed a sense of solidness. The material was unfamiliar, and she intended to ask Nylotte to look at it as soon as she could.
After that, she’d gone to speak with Emalia, who was as stunned as she had been at the discovery of the bunker and her presumed brother. That was her great aunt’s phrase—presumed brother. Cali had no doubts. She pressed the older woman a little but had no sense of deception. Which is good. If I discovered she was lying to me, I don’t know what I’d do. Probably fall to pieces.
She needed to understand what her parents had been up to. Clearly, they had a passion, a mission, a crusade—something to explain all the weird things she’d found. If it was in her power to continue it, and if it was worthy of being continued—which it was, of course, because they had thought it was worth it—she would give it her all. The frustration at not knowing became almost overwhelming at times, and she’d spent considerable time that day with her arms wrapped around Frye while she tried to blank her mind. He seemed to know what she needed and hadn’t strayed more than a couple of feet from her.
The ritual of serving the tavern’s Thursday night crowd took her mind off her bigger concerns and grounded her in the everyday annoyance of people whose belief in their own intelligence grew with every glass or bottle they emptied. Tonight, she was all about being involved with them and traded insults and arguments with all takers. Zeb’s watchful eye lingered on her but he didn’t tell her to stop so she indulged herself.
By the time the evening was winding down, she felt more like herself than she had since the discovery of the key’s hidden secret. About two dozen people remained in the common room when the front door banged open and Tanyith rushed in, followed by Detective Barton. Her first inclination was to rush over and tease them for being together, but the expressions on their faces stopped her. He looked as angry as she’d ever seen him, and the woman wore what she thought of as her cop face—hard, unyielding, suspicious, and intense.
She headed to the bar, where they were already speaking to Zeb. As she moved into earshot, the detective’s words sent a chill through her. “Yes, another gang or group or something.”
Cali reached them and interrupted. “What’s going on?”
Tanyith said, “We’ve had warning of an imminent attack—within the hour.”
Adrenaline surged through her. “On us? Here?”
Barton shook her head. “On the Zatoras.”
She frowned. “Do we care about that now?”
The detective sighed. “Yeah, we do, for two reasons. First, it’s a new player and we don’t know what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. We don’t even have a guess. Second, they intend to do it in public.”
“What? Why?” she blurted. “How do you know?” Panic rocketed through her and Fyre stood with a growl behind the bar, apparently reacting to her emotional state. She pushed the emotion down but couldn’t banish it.
“An informant near the Atlantean gang. A signal went up to pull all their people off the streets, and he was able to find out why. The local leader has a boss in New Atlantis, and word came down that another group from there will make a move here tonight. The group that’s already in town was expressly forbidden to get involved. It’s apparently something about the way politics works for them. Frankly, it sounds stupid.” You’re preaching to the choir on that one, sister. “But here’s the worst part. He said they’re the ones who sent the giant octopus.”
Her mouth corrected, “Kraken,” without instruction from her brain as she considered the possibilities. She didn’t much care if a group of criminals attacked another one as long as they kept it between themselves. Maybe that makes me a bad person. If so, I’ll wear that. But if the public was at risk, they had a responsibility to act. “Okay. If we have to choose a side, it’s against the bastards who sent a freaking monster to destroy the city. What’s the plan?”
“The police are going to do what they can,” Tanyith answered, “but there’s no way they will be able to watch everywhere. We need to fill the gaps.”
Barton nodded. “I’ve already put the word out and we’re spinning up. But we can’t bring in the National Guard. It would cause a complete panic. So it’ll be patrol, SWAT, and the rest of us positioned on the streets. But the Zatora gang holds considerable territory, and we don’t have the numbers to cover it all. We need help.”
“I’ll contact the council,” Zeb said. “They’ll want to secure their neighborhoods first but should be able to spread out from there.” He headed to the basement—apparently, he wanted to keep his secrets secret from the tavern’s clientele.
Cali turned to the Draksa. “It’s time to get up top and look for trouble. If you find it, let me know.” She’d feel his emotion through the connection between them and she could always tell what direction he was in from wherever she was. Neither of them fully understood the reasons for this but accepted it happily. Tanyith opened the door for him, and he dashed through it.
The detective nodded. “I have to go. Call me if you need help. Stay safe and thank you.”
Honesty resonated in her words, so Cali skipped the sarcastic response she’d normally have made and stuck with a gentle tease, instead. “You stay safe, Detective.” Barton grinned like she’d heard the unsaid, “Because your boyfriend here would miss you,” and headed out the door.
Tanyith leaned against the bar across from her. “So. This sucks.”
“Yeah. It really does. When this is all said and done, we need to get a better understanding of what the hell is going on in New Atlantis.”
“And we thought the local gang was trouble. Little did we know.”
She laughed. “Right?” Her instincts—or her anxiety—prodded her to move. “You know, we’re not of any use in here. I’ll rush home and snag what I need. I can meet you here in ten, then let’s go hunting. Does that sound good?”
“Perfect.” With scant regard for the public area he was in, he created a portal and vanished.
Quickly, she turned to the tavern’s crowd. “Listen up, people. There’s trouble on the streets tonight. If you’re interested in helping your city and sober enough to manage it, get out there and protect the innocent citizens and tourists who might be caught in it. If you’re not, find someplace safe to hunker down.” She summoned her own portal and plunged through it to her apartment.
Cali raced through her home to retrieve her full supply of healing and energy potions—two of each—and don the jacket Nylotte had given her. She had her bracelets and the charm necklace, as always. The idea of wearing the uniform she’d found in the lair had crossed her mind, but she’d rejected it since it was still untested and an unknown. But there is something there I might be able to use. I’m an idiot for not taking them sooner. She created another portal and hurried through into the center of the lair. The lights recognized her presence and kicked on as she ran to the lockers, pulled the zip ties out, and jammed them through two of her belt loops to keep her hands free. They were more than long enough to stay in place.
Another portal landed her in the tavern basement. Zeb stood inside his secret room, talking to the air. She stared for a moment, wondered what magic he used or if he’d finally lost his mind, then turned and raced up the stairs. Tanyith waited at the top, wearing his Drow-provided jacket and a belt with sheaths for his sai. At the sight of her approach, he strode to the door and they exited together.
“Where to?” he asked.
She’d considered that question on the way over and
had an answer ready. “We should move toward Jackson Square. It would be an unfortunate place for a battle, with Cafe du Monde right there plus all the bars and shops on Decatur, but if it’s a public place they’re after, that’s my best bet.”
“Okay, that’s a good plan. Let’s move.”
Cali chose basically the opposite route she would have taken at any other time. Normally, she tried to avoid the most heavily trafficked areas. Tonight, they needed to be among the people so they could react to trouble. It took a few blocks before the crowds began to thicken. Tourists with huge containers of one drink or another wandered through the streets and generally had a good time. Sometimes, she thought they were ridiculous but on this occasion, she saw them simply as folks trying to fill a few hours with pleasure and freedom. The idea that jerks from out of town—way out of town—decided it was okay to interfere with that pursuit filled her with righteous anger.
She growled to release a little of the emotion. “I’m ready to bust heads. How about you?”
Tanyith nodded in her peripheral vision. “I’d rather it was the Zatoras or the Atlantean gang, myself, but I guess sometimes, life doesn’t work out the way you want.”
Her snort contained a thread of grim humor. “Maybe Grisham will be so thankful he’ll agree to leave town.” Tanyith laughed, but a wave of anger from Fyre distracted her. She’d constantly tracked his location, and he was a block ahead and another toward the river. “Fyre’s found something. It’s time to make a deposit in the Karma bank.” She accelerated into a run to find out what had upset the Draksa.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
They rounded the corner with Cali a step ahead of Tanyith and they both froze for a moment when they immediately located what they had hoped to not find. People fled in panic from a battle that involved individuals with guns on one side and blasts of magic on the other. As one, they closed at a run while she cataloged the situation.
There are five on the left. They are human so probably Zatora with pistols. The three on the right are magicals using shadow and fire. Already, a parked car one of the humans had hidden behind was aflame, and she hoped the gangster would have the sense to move away from it before it exploded.
She sent a message to Fyre and told him to ice the vehicle before she turned her attention to the newcomers who launched a steady fusillade of magic at the gang members. They wore dark-blue clothes, similar enough to be a uniform but with notable differences. The tight pants and high boots were all the same, but one wore a coat that buttoned up to her neck, another displayed a different style jacket open over a tunic of some kind, and the third wore a top that looked like a heavy sweatshirt. Their positioning was effective as they used nearby cars as protection against the incoming bullets, and each carried an oval shield of their chosen form of magic in one hand and used the other to direct magical attacks at their opponents.
The Draksa whipped in front of her in response to her instruction and both the slight shimmer and her sense of his location confirmed he was there. A long stream of frost emerged to coat the car. One of the magicals reacted instantly and fired a shadow blast at the source. He flipped to avoid it and turned toward the one who had attacked him.
Cali yelled, “I’m on the right one,” and Tanyith focused on the middle by default.
“Quit shooting and get the hell out of here,” she shouted at the humans, then had to focus on defense as a fire blast streaked toward her and expanded with each foot it traveled. She launched herself upward and the cone tracked her, which forced her to conjure a shield to intercept it. Hers wasn’t as good as Nylotte’s had been, but it had improved enough to prevent her from being cooked. She landed behind the line of enemies, but only her target turned to her. The others were fully engaged with her allies.
Fyre’s foe blasted him and hurled him sideways to crash onto the roof of a nearby building. Red rage blinded her and the magic erupted from her in a force blast that lifted the woman who’d targeted him from her feet and thrust her face-first into the car she had hidden behind. She crumpled, clearly unconscious.
Cali’s original adversary used the moment of distraction to release another wash of flame at her, but she blocked it easily with her shield. He maintained the spell and effectively prevented her from releasing a counterattack. She raced to her right and a position that would require him to stop the attack or immolate his own ally.
Tanyith ruined that plan by eliminating the third of the New Atlanteans. Her partner had summoned shields on both hands and pushed into hand-to-hand distance to deliver a flurry of blows to the man. He finished it with an uppercut that lifted him onto his toes and a spinning back kick that catapulted him into the flames.
The disruption allowed her to drop her shield, and she delivered air punches that landed as force impacts on her opponent’s ribs and head. She continued the battering until he was down, unmoving, and finally forced herself to stop. “Tanyith, check them and see if you can find anything useful. Where they came from. What they’re up to. That junk.” She turned without waiting for an answer and flung herself up to the roof where the Draksa had vanished.
Fyre lay under a piece of bulky equipment that appeared to have toppled onto him when he struck it. She raced over and pushed on it, but it was too heavy. With a scream that released all the pent frustration inside her, she pounded it with all the magical force she could muster and it shifted off her partner. She knelt beside him and put a hand on his side. “Are you okay, buddy?”
He snorted. “Those jerks burned a year’s worth of luck. There is a one in a thousand chance of that falling on me.”
She laughed. “So get up then.”
The Draksa pushed himself to his feet and wobbled slightly. “I’ll need a little more time to heal. It took all the power I had to keep from being crushed.”
“We’ll head to the Square. Join us when you can.”
He sat to wait for his flesh to knit and his strength to return, and she jumped to the ground, using her magic to break her fall. Tanyith strode over to her. “Nothing. Not a damn thing. They’re here to fight and that’s all, apparently.”
Frustrated, she shook her head. “Well, let’s give them what they came for.”
They reached Jackson Square without any further encounters, although she heard a noise in the distance that sounded like fighting. Everything was strangely normal. Even though it was on the line between evening and night, an abundant number of tourists still wandered around. The usual assortment of buskers who frequented the area were there as well, and she saw Dasante first. She ran to him and interrupted his magical patter by stepping in front of his customers.
“Cal, what the hell?” He sounded far more surprised than upset.
“You have to go—now. Pack it up and go. There’s trouble coming. Spread the word.” Tanyith was already doing exactly that and moved quickly from person to person to advise them to get off the streets.
It was a sign of his trust in her that Dasante didn’t argue and instead, began to gather his belongings. She turned and yelled, “Everyone clear the square. Now!” She growled in frustration as the people ignored her—or worse, laughed at her. Before she could respond, however, Fyre flew overhead and when he roared and spat frost magic, they hastily reconsidered. Screaming and running ensued, and all she could do was laugh at the sight. See, you should have listened to me. The Draksa was in his element as he alternately swooped low to make people move faster and soared high to make sure they could all see him.
She sent him appreciation and he responded with amusement. Ten minutes later, the area was clear and Tanyith, Cali, and Fyre stood in the center and took a moment to soak in the quiet. She’d never seen the square like this and honestly never wanted to again. It was as if the life had suddenly drained from it, leaving it physically and spiritually empty.
The respite lasted all of five minutes before the sounds of approaching voices from both sides alerted them to trouble on the way. Fyre launched into the air and vanished behind his veil,
and his two teammates held a position in the center of the space, waiting to see what would happen. The Zatoras appeared from one corner, a pack of ten angry-looking humans with weapons in their hands and who bellowed insults in all directions. A group of New Atlanteans in their blue outfits emerged from around another corner. They numbered fewer than the gang members, but they moved with almost military position and obviously checked for enemies in all directions as they marched forward.
Cali caught Tanyith’s shirt and pulled him into hiding behind a nearby hedge. “That’s too many for us to handle on our own, even with Fyre.”
He nodded. “We’ll have to let them engage and step in once the numbers are down.”
“I hate that.”
“Yeah, me too. But I’m not really in a place where a noble, sacrificial death works for me at the moment.”
She laughed. “Well said. And I can’t die without knowing what the deal is with everything my parents left for me.”
They fell silent as the two groups came to a stop facing each other, about thirty feet away near the entrance to the Cathedral. One of the New Atlanteans, a tall man with dark hair, took a step ahead of his teammates and shouted across the distance that separated them. “Lay down your weapons and you’ll get a quick death.”
The Zatora soldiers all laughed at him. A spokeswoman stepped forward with long wavy black hair, a leather jacket, and a shining silver pistol held in her hand. “Do you honestly think you can come into our city and say what’s what? You’d best step back to where you came from.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Then I guess we have a problem.”
Her words were the catalyst for the chaos to begin. The Zatoras scattered, which allowed some of them to survive the roiling wall of flame that surged hungrily toward them. Gunshots rang out amidst the screams and a couple of the New Atlanteans fell before the others halted their attack and summoned shields. The human forces attacked and the magicals fired targeted assaults. Shadow and force magic reached out for individuals and lightning cascaded to catch two who had huddled too close together.