Stormwind (The Storm Chronicles Book 3)

by Skye Knizley

  Raven jumped and pulled another knife from the wall and stuck it in her belt. They were better than nothing. She then knelt next to Diarmait. He’d bled out from the terrible wound in his chest but he’d written words “fight or die” on the floor in his own blood before dying.

  Raven closed his staring eyes and noticed something under his top. She reached in and fished out a large silver medallion with a wolf head in the center. Raven weighed it in her hand and guess it was pure silver and not a piece of plated tourist jewelry. She smiled and slipped it into her pocket before leading Aspen toward the partially opened doorway.

  Cold air blew through the gap and made their torch flicker and spit sparks; they could see very little of the other side but it looked like another stone corridor. The floor was covered in a thin layer of ash; Vampire ash. Raven recognized the unmistakable black powder. The poor soul had been right on the other side of the wall and Raven had never known.

  She pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped into the corridor. Behind her Aspen held the torch high so they could see the whole hallway ahead of them. Blood, darkened by vampire ash and bits of broken bone, covered the walls in a sort of meringue and there were bare spots on the wall where weapons had been removed; more knives and spears.

  Raven shook her head. It seemed stupid that lycans would use weapons to kill when they were perfectly capable of doing the job with their claws or teeth. Had other vampires taken weapons for defense? If so they would have been close to useless without silver. Lycans were notoriously hard to kill and these seemed even tougher than Tate and his mongrels.

  Aspen stopped and held the torch over something on the floor. She pushed it with the toe of her boot and smiled at Raven.

  “The spear’s silver tip is still intact,” she said.

  Raven turned and knelt next to Aspen. Sure enough the tip of the huge spear was still in one piece. She tore the bottom off one of her tank-tops and wrapped it around the broken shaft, fashioning a makeshift silver dagger.

  “Good catch, Asp. Have I mentioned I missed you?”

  Aspen blushed. “Not in so many words.”

  “I did. Very much.”

  Raven turned away and looked into the darkness. “This hallway has to go somewhere. Stay close and keep your eyes and senses open.”

  “You think I’m letting you out of my sight? You’re the most badass person I know,” Aspen replied.

  “I’m not badass, I just do my job,” Raven replied as she walked along the gore-covered floor.

  “Yeah…right. You have no idea how afraid of you the other supernaturals are, do you?”

  Raven half turned. “Afraid? That’s ridiculous.”

  “Honey, you dispatch justice with that cannon of yours with extreme prejudice,” Aspen said. “Fürstin Ravenel, Lady Valentina’s judge, jury and executioner.”

  Raven frowned. “I’m not an executioner. I kill when I need to, to protect myself and others from the worst scum of the city.”

  “I know that and you know that. But the word on the street is cross the Mistress of the Night and Ravenel will be paying you a visit you will not enjoy.”

  Raven turned back and continued into the darkness. “You make me sound like some kind of vampire bogeyman. I’m just a cop trying to do her job in a city full of slime, grime and crime.”

  “I know, Ray,” Aspen said. “And I love you for it.”

  Raven tried not to smile at the complement and continued along the maze of corridors, occasionally stopping to look at the pictograms or examine a pool of blood. Most of the blood belonged to humans, possibly familiars, some belonged to vampires while still more belonged to lycans. At least the vampires were fighting back. Most of the vamps Raven knew couldn’t defend themselves against a wet piece of bread.

  At the end of the corridor they found one of the familiars that Raven had recognized in the ceremonial chamber. The lithe young man had been pinned to the wall by a spear through his heart. Blood ran freely down his chest and onto the floor where it trickled into a crack in the ancient stone. Raven reached up under his ear and checked for a pulse, holding her breath; there was nothing.

  “He’s dead,” she said softly. “Dammit.”

  “It isn’t your responsibility, Ray,” Aspen said. “You can’t save everyone.”

  “So far I haven’t saved anyone,” Raven replied bitterly.

  Aspen moved between Raven and the dead familiar.

  “Oh really? Last time I checked we were both still alive and you tried like hell to save Josef as well as a lycan that was trying to kill us,” she said. “We’re breathing and there is still at least one other survivor, maybe more. They need you. I need you.”

  Raven hugged Aspen gently and pulled the spear from the dead familiar and let his body fall to the floor.

  “I’m sorry,” she said to the corpse.

  She hefted the spear and continued deeper into the tunnels. After a time they came to an intersection. Pictographs indicated something different lay in either direction, but Raven had no idea what the pictures meant. She could, however hear water running from their right. Assuming that meant they could be close to the lake and a possible exit, Raven turned that way, the spear held in front of her. Within a few yards they were descending into blackness that even Raven’s vision couldn’t penetrate. She placed a hand on the wall and used it to steady her as she walked. She could feel cold water pouring in gentle rivers over her fingers as well as slimy lichen that clung to her like some undead lover.

  With no warning the floor dropped from under her and she fell, her hands scrabbling at the walls for purchase. Above her she heard Aspen scream and knew she was falling too.

  Raven dug the spear into the wall in an effort to stop her descent, but as soon as she slowed Aspen crashed into her and the pair began to tumble, falling into the blackness below.

  An eternity of moments later, Raven saw a flicker of light a split second before she splashed into stagnant, ice-cold water. She felt Aspen go limp on impact and she wrapped her arms around the small woman, keeping her close. They touched bottom and Raven pushed off with all her strength, forcing them back to the surface.

  The pair surfaced in another chamber of red rock dimly lit by a handful of torches that cast dancing shadows on the carved walls. Skeletons hung around the top of the chamber from chains driven into the stone, their bones yellowed with age and water trickled in from a crack in the wall, slowly filling the room.

  Raven held Aspen tightly and swam toward a higher section of the floor where she could lay her out flat. Shivering from the cold she began to administer CPR.

  “Come on, Asp,” she said between breaths. “Don’t do this to me. Give me a sign.”

  Aspen coughed and spat out a trickle of water before opening her violet eyes. “How was that for a sign?”

  Raven laughed and sat back on her heels, wrapping her arms around herself. “Better than it could have been. Welcome back to the land of the living.”

  Aspen sat up on her elbows. “I was never gone. I just needed a nap. Where are we?”

  Raven looked around. “I have no idea. Pretty far below the main temple, I’d guess. There must be a way in and out, though. Someone had to hang up our friends up there.”

  “I saw. Love, I counted to fifty before we hit the water,” Aspen replied. “It’s going to be a long climb back out of here if we have to get out the way we came in.”

  Raven nodded and began gathering old bones and pieces of what looked like broken weapons and furniture. Soon she had a reasonable pile from which she laid out a fire. When she was through, Aspen glared at the pile and it burst into flame, crackling merrily in the dank chamber. Both women disrobed and hung their clothes by the fire to dry while they stood over the blaze to warm themselves and dry out as quickly as possible. The whole while Raven was searching the room with her eyes.

  They were twenty feet below the ledge where the skeletons were hung and even further from the ceiling. She could jump to the ledge, b
ut needed a way to get Aspen up and she was fresh out of rope. Throwing her seemed out of the question which meant she would have to lift her and hope there was nothing lurking up there in the darkness.

  She turned away from the ledge and let her mind wander back to their next move. There was no telling how many lycans were between them and the way out or even where the exit was. They needed to get out in one piece and find Tate so she could beat the information out of him. Someone in the city was responsible for this, someone besides Sanchez who could barely tie his own shoes. And she was going to find him or her if it was the last thing she did.

  Raven was staring at the water in annoyance and just starting to feel warm when an odd ripple in the lake caught her attention. Once the surface had calmed from their fall the only ripples had been from the water trickling in. This set of ripples was coming straight toward them with a trail of bubbles behind it.

  Raven pulled Aspen out of the way just as another of the huge lycans burst from the water, its claws shredding the spot where Aspen had stood a moment before. Raven kicked the lycan away and scooped up her makeshift knife, putting herself between the lycan and her familiar.

  “Back off, lycan!” she said. “I am Fürstin Ravenel. You have no right to threaten us or hold us here and I have no problem killing you.”

  The lycan roared and attacked, his wicked claws slashing at her. Raven managed to dodge the first attack, but the second caught her across her bare arm and ripped the skin open like an overripe fruit. She cried out in pain and stepped back, watching the lycan warily.

  The lycan howled again and licked Raven’s blood from his claws with relish, his yellow eyes shining with malevolent glee.

  The act just annoyed Raven. She switched the knife to her unwounded arm and winced at the feeling of the deep gashes starting to heal.

  “What is it with supernatural creatures and drama? This isn’t a horror movie. Either fight or leave, but stop boring me with your theatrics.”

  The lycan stopped lapping at his bloody claws and stared at Raven in surprise. Raven took the opportunity to pounce, pushing off the wall to land on the lycan, one hand in the mane that started between his pointed ears, the other driving the knife through his temple. She pulled the knife back out as he started to shift into to his human shape and kicked off, pushing his bleeding corpse into the water.

  “Stupid,” Raven muttered, checking her healing arm.

  “Those cuts look bad, Ray,” Aspen said. “You’re going to need claret soon.”

  “I don’t see any blood banks around, do you?” Raven asked, gathering her clothes and starting to dress.

  “Yeah, I do,” Aspen said, pointing at herself. “Hello? Familiar right here. What do you think we’re for?”

  Raven looked at Aspen as if she’d just been asked to eat vomit.

  “I’m not biting you, Aspen. You know I don’t do that unless it’s the only option, you’re not a snack tray. We’ll get out of here before the thirst gets too bad.”

  “Ray…”

  “No!” Raven said with a wave of her hand. “Get dressed, we need to get moving.”

  Aspen made a face, but did as she was told. Raven was glad dressing ensured Aspen couldn’t see the huge alpha lycan looking down at them from the ledge. It watched them both with cold yellow eyes then looked at the body floating face down in the underground lake. It looked back at Raven and turned away, disappearing into the shadows.

  When Aspen was dressed, Raven boosted her up and gave her a push so she could pull herself onto the ledge. Raven then jumped up beside her. They were standing on a four foot wide ledge that encircled the entire room. Skeletons were hung every ten feet, their bones yellow with age. Ahead of them a tunnel led away into darkness, but did not appear to be climbing back toward the surface.

  Raven walked around the chamber, examining the skeletons. They all had what she believed were tooth marks on them. By the looks of them they’d been left by canines; large ones.

  “Why would lycans keep skeletons of people they’d eaten?” Aspen asked, following Raven.

  Raven shook her head and ran a hand over the ragged skull of one of the skeletons. “I’m not sure. Without typing it’s impossible to be certain, but look at the teeth on this guy.”

  Aspen looked and frowned. “Double retractable canines. These are vampires?”

  “I think so,” Raven replied. “I think these are vampires that were eaten alive.”

  “Shouldn’t they have turned to ash when the heart was destroyed?”

  “Maybe not. It usually takes decapitation or staking with silver or wood to destroy a vamp,” Raven said. “I use special bullets that contain both to do the job. I have no idea what happens if you eat a vampire alive.”

  “Maybe this,” Aspen said, tapping one of the vampires with a purple fingernail.

  “Even vampires don’t deserve this,” Raven said. “For all I know these are alive and regenerating, albeit very slowly.”

  Feeling sick she turned away, pulled a torch from the wall and led the way into the dark tunnel. This one was similar to the ones above, but older. The walls had marks from the pickaxes that had been used to cut the stone and the pictograms were more primitive. It was clear which were supposed to be vampires and which were lycans, but they were more stick-figure than hieroglyphs.

  After several minutes of walking, Raven could see light ahead; another torch was stuck in the wall of what looked like an intersection. She drew the silver knife from her belt and continued with more caution, her eyes searching for any hint of danger.

  Just as she stepped into the light, a portcullis of sorts swung down, bloody spikes glistening in the torchlight. Raven managed to catch it with her hand but only just. One of the spikes went through her palm and out through the back of her hand, dripping blood on her wrist. Wincing with pain she held the gate in place with her other hand and pulled the injured one free, then pushed the gate back into its position overhead where it locked in place with a click.

  Once it was safe she held her injured hand under the torch light to examine the wound. The hole was ragged and the tendons were torn, but it was already beginning to heal. Unfortunately, she was also beginning to feel the effects of blood loss and using her abilities. She’d used her powers to fight two lycans and was having to heal herself more than usual. Aspen was right, eventually she would need blood.

  “Raven, how bad is it?” Aspen asked from behind.

  “Bad enough,” Raven replied, ripping off another piece of her top and wrapping it around her palm.

  “What are you going to do when you get wounded beyond your ability to heal without blood?” Aspen pressed.

  “Worry about it if it happens,” Raven said. “We’re not discussing biting you, okay?”

  Aspen threw up her hands in frustration. “You are so damn stubborn. You’re a dhampyr. You need blood. You have a willing donor so what’s the big deal?”

  “Asp, you know what the deal is,” Raven said, leaning against the wall. “I hate blood. I only use my powers when I need to and it makes me sick every time I have to drink claret. I’m not going to risk your life unless I absolutely have to.”

  “What happens to me if you’re too weak to fight?” Aspen asked. “I can’t carry you and I certainly can’t fight these guys. A couple spells aren’t going to be much good against primal lycans that can bench-press 747’s.”

  “It won’t come to that,” Raven said, standing. “I’ll be fine. I can smell fresher air from up ahead, let’s go that way.”

  She turned away from Aspen and continued straight, being more careful to look for deadfalls and traps. After a time, the tunnel angled upwards and doubled back on itself in a wide, slow spiral that emptied out in a newer corridor some forty feet above where it started. Raven knelt at the top and ran a finger through a pool of blood. By the smell it had belonged to a vampire, but there was no ash. Whoever had been injured must have continued toward the distant light.

  The pair stepped over the dr
ying puddle and continued down the narrow corridor. Here the red stone gave way periodically to native granite, creating a red and grey checkerboard effect that made Raven feel dizzy.

  They were almost to an intersection when they could hear the sound of stone grating on stone. Raven turned and saw that a section of wall was sliding toward them. She grabbed Aspen and pushed her down the corridor before running after her, the stone close on her heels. She dove and rolled to safety just as the wall slammed shut, blocking any way back into the tunnels.

  Raven rolled over and glared at the piece of wall.

  “I bet dad never had to deal with this kind of crap.”

  Aspen extended a hand to Raven.

  “Yeah, but he probably didn’t have nearly as much fun, either.”

  Raven let herself be helped up. When she was standing she looked down at Aspen who was smiling impishly.

  “You call this fun?” she asked.

  Aspen shrugged.“Would you rather be doing this or pushing paper around a desk somewhere?”

  “Okay, maybe it’s more fun than paperwork, but not by much,” Raven conceded.

  “What would you rather be doing?” Aspen asked, walking ahead.

  “Sipping wine, eating popcorn and watching a Dirty Harry marathon,” Raven replied.

  “It’s a date,” Aspen said. “Next time we get kidnapped I’ll bring a DVD player. You bring the corn.”

  “Smartass,” Raven muttered.

  “I heard that.”

  “Still true,” Raven said, following her familiar down the corridor.

  THEY HAD CLIMBED ANOTHER THIRTY feet and passed dozens of corpses before giving up on finding the source of the fresh air and taking refuge in a chamber with only one visible entrance. Along the way Raven had collected clothing and a handful of weapons including a recurve longbow from one of the deceased. She now sat next to a fire Aspen had made going through the clothing and seeing if she could make anything useful from the items she’d found on their long walk.

  Next to her, Aspen was cooking a half dozen lizards she’d coaxed out of the walls with a spell. The six-lined lizards didn’t look particularly appetizing, but the smell was making Raven even hungrier. The meat and blood would help her to heal and hold off her need for claret that much longer.