by ST Branton
As she finished speaking, I realized two things. One: her minions were closing in on me. Two: it was suddenly very dark. Glancing up, I saw that the latter was because she had spread her wings, blocking out the sun with their expanse.
“Oh, shit.” The beat of those wings sent the driveway gravel spinning. She looped her way into the sky, until all I could see was a vague shape. I wrenched my gaze back to Earth. She’d come down eventually. And I’d deal with her when she got here.
A quick assessment of the situation told me things were not good. The harpy was the only one I had any sort of beef with. She was just using the cops as a bunch of human shields.
But as I looked at them now, I realized they weren’t humans at all. They were vampires.
Anger flooded my veins as they closed in and I lashed out with my bare fists. I was tired of taking it easy on these bastards. I barely felt it when my fists connected with jaws and stomachs and noses, but I heard the shrieks of pain and hunger as my enemies fell. The power in my arms was dangerously intoxicating.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard a voice calling out to me. But I couldn’t focus on it. There was only the rage and the fight. The howls of the swarming vamps buzzed in my ears as I tore through them, breaking limbs and dropping bodies to the ground. They started to flee before me, terrified by the force I had become.
I gave chase, then stopped as a large figure stepped in front of me.
It was Rocco Durant.
He snarled at me with his wide, toothy grin, like he had on the day I chased him down the docs.
“You,” I shouted. “You’re dead.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but only laughed instead. It filled me with a fire I had never known before. Without thinking, the sword was in my hands. I felt like I could cut a mountain in half, but I didn’t need to go that far. All I needed was to end this miserable life.
I raised the blade high, and Rocco transformed into the monster he had become on the day I last saw him. The day I killed him.
The day Marcus died.
Marcus.
Something wasn’t right, and my blade wavered. Rocco beat his chest but he stayed rooted to the ground. A faint voice called out to me and I reached for it.
Vic...Vic...you are under her spell.
“Marcus...I…” I blinked and suddenly the world changed. Gone was the buzzing, the heat, the anger. And the figure standing in front of me wasn’t my parents’ killer, but a terrified looking Namiko.
I dropped to my knees, the blade extinguished by my side.
“Are you, OK?” Namiko asked. She stared at me wide eyed like her whole world had been turned upside down.
“I’m so sorry, Namiko,” I choked out. “It was the harpy, I was under her spell.”
“I know,” she said. “I saw her, the woman from the warehouse, talking to you. Then she turned into this hideous creature and you went nuts.”
I lifted my head sharply. “The vamps.”
Spinning around, I saw a dozen police officers rolling around in the dirt. They weren’t vampires at all, just men and women trying to do their job.
“Shit. Go to them,” I said. “Make sure they’re OK.”
Namiko nodded. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go clip that bitch.”
I grabbed my sword and marched past the cars and fallen officers. I could see the harpy waiting for me, floating near the end of the driveway.
“You’re with me, aren’t you, Marcus?”
Always.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep her out of my head. I can’t trust myself.”
Then trust in me. Follow my voice, and I will guide you.
I nodded. Time to end this charade.
“My, my.” The harpy’s shadow fell over me as I walked near. “It looks like our little rat is smarter than we imagined.” She flapped her wings above, eyeing me with a predator’s vision. The wind blew my hair back. “Let’s fix that, shall we?”
The creature dropped like a stone from the sky, aiming for me with deadly purpose. Her long claws snaked out toward my throat.
The wide end of Namiko’s driveway was empty, her heavy gate closed. This was what I had wanted from the beginning. And I was prepared to follow through.
I dodged, but she was too fast. The feel of her nail edge scraping my skin set me back into battle mode, no holds barred. The sword seemed to jump into my hand as if it had been waiting for me to snap out of it. Nothing had ever felt as good as that first hard swing. I missed, but it didn’t matter. The only thing of any importance was that I was fighting the way I wanted to fight so that I could win the way I wanted to win.
This harpy was either more agile than the others I had fought before, or she was just more filled with bullshit. She was constantly half a step ahead of me, dancing mockingly just out of my reach. All of my swings, no matter how sure I was that they’d land, left little more than scratches. She was doing it on purpose; I felt it. Pushing me to the brink of my tolerance. Trying to break through the armor I thought I’d built up.
Concentrate, Victoria. Call on the fire in your soul to sustain you. Your heart is true. She cannot corrupt it.
“No, it’s not. There’s a lot of shit wrong with my heart, Marcus, and you know it. I’m just too damn stubborn to let it go this way.”
All this hit-and-miss wasn’t helping. I was wasting my energy pool, which, although extended considerably, remained finite. I could feel the strain of a battle that had gone on far too long wearing on me in more ways than one.
And then suddenly there were three of her.
I stopped mid-swing and blinked. Three perfect copies of this redheaded crone flew before me. They swooped in for an attack.
I slashed outward at the first, but my blade passed through it as if it were made of smoke. The second veered toward my right, and while I was distracted by it something plowed into me. A huge chunk of skin was ripped from my side.
All three figures rushed skyward—all I could hear was their laughter.
“Marcus…”
It’s another one of her tricks, but you can beat this. Steel your nerves. Wait for my word.
The three harpies turned around for another attack, screeching the whole way. The one in front came at me with raised claws. They were aiming for my eyes, ready to gouge at my face.
Steady.
I didn’t even blink as the mirage passed through me.
The second buzzed overhead, trying to get me to take the bait, but I held my ground and waited for number three.
Now!
The moment Marcus spoke I sprang into action. Like I was chopping a log, the Gladius Solis swung overhead. Blood and feathers rained down around me and I heard a wail like a bat caught in a cage.
I turned around to see the harpy flopping in the dirt, one wing completely severed from her body.
“How dare you.” Her voice was gnarled, rasping against my eardrums. She bent like a tree in a tornado. “You have defiled me!”
“And I’m just getting started.” I rotated the blade smoothly with my wrist, rebalancing its weight. “You can keep trying if you want, but we both know the game is over. The ending is up to you now.”
She stared at me, her eyes bugged and wild. The thin lips pulled back from jagged teeth, parting in a brutal scream.
She launched herself toward me.
“The hard way it is, then,” I said as I raised my sword.
***
“Vic?”
Hearing the sound of my name was like breaking the still surface of a lake after a deep, cold dive. I turned around, refreshed and seeing the world with new—or at least changed—eyes. Namiko’s face took a moment to register in my mind. I figured she’d be terrified or revulsed by me, but the expression she wore was one of concern. Compassion. And a hint of triumph.
“You did it,” she said as she reached a hand down to help me to my feet.
“With some help,” I smiled. “How are the girl
s and boys in blue?”
She shrugged. “Pretty banged up, but they’ll live. None of them seem to know what’s going on though. It’s like they’re waking up from a coma. How hard did you hit them?”
“Pretty hard, but I’d wager their confusion is our redheaded friend’s doing.”
She nodded as we walked toward them. “So what can I do to help. What’s next?”
“Find Monk,” I said. “Quick. If we get out of here before they recognize us, they’ll leave eventually. You stay here and make sure that happens. There aren’t any outstanding warrants in your name, are there?”
Namiko raised her chin proudly. “I always cover my tracks.”
“Good.” My roving eye spotted Monk standing awkwardly against the side of a police car, arms folded. “Ugh. Does he think he looks like he belongs there?” Moving as fast as I dared to risk, I beelined to him. “Get over here. We’re leaving.”
“Fine by me.” He frowned. “What the hell was all that?”
“Shut up and take me to your lab,” I said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Monk was driving again, much more safely than last time. We had snagged a car on our way out of Namiko’s neighborhood, and now I sat in the passenger seat in silence, my last fight swirling in my head. He asked no questions, which was good. Somehow, I didn’t think he’d understand what had really happened. Hell, I didn’t know what it looked like outside of my own perspective. Just good old Vic, taking down law enforcement.
How badly had she gotten to me? There was no way to know. I feared it would bother me for the rest of my life.
Onto the next stage of your quest, Victoria. There will be time for reflection later. Remember what Deacon told you.
I rubbed my hands over my face. Deacon was the last thing I wanted on my mind right now. I could just hear him, the way he’d sounded on the phone, grappling with a conflict I thought I knew all too well.
He wanted to fix me. But fixing meant helping. And helping me meant trouble for him.
That was why this damn drill was so important. The LIGHT was the thing that could help me push back against the gods like I meant it. I was sorely in need of some kick-ass instruments of deity destruction.
“Do you think it’s still there?” I asked Monk. The answer was something I’m not sure either of us wanted to think about, let alone vocalize, but now that the edge had fallen off my melancholy, I found the silence suffocating. At least if we were breaking and entering, I’d have something to take my mind off what a broken mess I still was.
“It better be, or I’m really going to need to overhaul my security systems.” He talked like he was joking, but his eyes were steely. “I think they should let me in since I own the place, but I guess you never know. How’s your sweet-talking skill?”
I bit my lip. “We’re about to find out.”
***
Monk Industries was housed in a starkly white building with clean, modern lines that gleamed in the lengthening sunlight. Almost immediately, I picked out a set of flashing red and blue lights. “Yep, here we go.”
“Lot’s gonna be full of them, I bet,” Monk muttered. His eyes started to shift nervously, fingers tapping against the wheel. “Let’s hope they don’t decide to run this plate.”
“Wouldn’t that be something.” We turned the last bend before the approach to the front of the massive building, and even in the current situation, I was struck momentarily dumb by the scale of Monk’s pioneer operation. “Nice digs.” I said, when I found my voice.
“Thanks. That view never gets old.” There were more lights clustered in a little knot near the walkway up to the doors but not nearly as many as I’d dreaded.
“Why’s it so quiet here?” I asked. “I’m not really complaining, but it makes me nervous.”
Monk grimaced. “Me too. Feels like an ambush.”
I was pretty sure he said that just to seem cool, but distressingly, he wasn’t wrong. My heartbeat picked up as we pulled into a spot not too close to the cruisers. They were silent—lights only.
Was it an omen?
Huffing at myself, I rolled my eyes. The last thing I needed right now was to be soaking up crazy superstitions. Gods I could deal with, so far. I shut the car door and started walking toward the curb without checking to see if Monk was behind me.
“Hey, are you gonna be all right?” he asked, jogging briefly to catch up with me. “You’ve been different since we left that house.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He didn’t seem convinced, so I added, “Really. It would be too hard to explain.”
“I don’t know. You’ve done a decent job with everything else.”
“I appreciate the compliment, but you don’t have to.” I paused before reaching out to one of the frosted glass doors. “Is there anything in here I need to watch out for? Security droids? Lasers? Highly trained ninja operatives?”
“It’s probably already disabled if they’re in there somewhere.” Monk peered through the glass. “I can’t see anything. Want me to go first?”
“No. I don’t think you could protect me from a pack of kittens, Monk.” I gritted my teeth and yanked open the door.
He followed, grumbling, “I could if they were declawed.”
***
The interior was vast and open… and empty of everything except ridiculously fancy cars. It looked like the inside of a recently abandoned building, so quiet and deep were the shadows. I caught myself breathing shallowly, as if that would help me hear the stillness better. It didn’t sit right with me.
Even if the cops had already processed this floor, they should’ve been posted up on a perimeter, just in case. I’d seen enough search sites to know there was something seriously jacked up with this one.
“Be careful.” My whisper carried much too far in all the wide-open space. “I don’t know where they are.”
“Upstairs, maybe. Or downstairs. There are a lot of levels in this place.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. The longer we spent in this place, the greater my anxiety built. “Where do we need to be?” Hopefully, he’d get the hint and not make me elaborate.
“All the way on the bottom. This way.”
The elevator didn’t play music as it sunk us down below the first floor. I kept my eyes fixed on the digital floor counter, trying to ignore all the drastic possibilities piling up in my mind. Maybe there was another harpy in charge of the police force that came here, and they were long gone with the drill. Maybe there was no drill at all, and it was all a weird, elaborate con. Maybe Monk and Brax were actually the same person somehow, and he was waiting for the most dramatic moment to unveil himself.
The elevator sang out a pleasant tone. Its doors slid open a hundred feet from the biggest vault door I’d ever seen.
“Voila,” Monk sang. Seeing his vault seemed to wipe the stress clean away. I wished I had that kind of instant-off switch.
“Okay, it’s gotta be in there,” I said. “I’m not sure even my magic sword could cut through that.”
Yes, it could. Fortunately, it is the only thing that could.
“I’d say you could give it a shot, but we’re pressed for time.” He put his palm up against a hidden panel, then pressed each fingertip and his thumb in specific locations on the face of the door. A massive bolt freed itself somewhere within. “Come on.” He patted one of the prongs on the gigantic lock-wheel. “It takes two to crack this baby open. On a good day.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. We fought that thing for three whole minutes before it started to budge, a problem I was confident originated with his perfectly average upper body. He was almost hanging on it before the wheel decided to turn. Then he dropped off and put his hand back on the hidden plate. “Stand back.”
The door slid out on an arc of embedded tracks, passing a wall of lasers over both of us. I put my hand in my bag, running my thumb over the now-familiar contours of the hilt. It gave me comfort but not enough. The anxiety was crushing.
<
br /> Not that the vault would be full of cops or that I’d find all the disappeared New York vamps waiting for me inside. I was just terrified that the LIGHT would be gone. And if it was, I’d be well and truly fucked, along with the rest of humanity.
Yeah, maybe the pressure was getting to me a little. I could have ripped Monk’s head off for coughing. The door crept along its tracks so slowly I wanted to blow it to pieces. “Can’t you make it go faster?”
“No. It’s so heavy it’s a safety risk if it goes too quickly. There’d be no way to save someone who got caught.”
I bounced from foot to foot just to relieve the jitters threatening to overtake my composure. Call me insane, but I hadn’t anticipated so much waiting.
Little did I know, things were about to pick up real quick.
“Hey!” The voice cracked out down the short hall like a gunshot. Silas Monk flinched and moved to cover his head. I spun around, sword brandished.
I wonder if he realizes how lucky he is that you are here, Marcus mused.
“I guarantee he doesn’t.” I spoke through clenched teeth, staring a black uniform in the eye. He was pointing a gun directly at my face.
“Hands up. Drop the weapon!”
Raising my free hand, I kept a firm grip on the hilt. His eyes flicked back and forth so quickly I thought he might pass out. “Look to my right,” I suggested. “See who’s with me. And then please put down your gun.”
The guy flicked his broad, square head toward Monk, squinted, and did a double take. “Wait. Sir?”
Monk brought his arms cautiously down. “Uh…” He looked at the name patch. “Yeah. Hey, Joe. You working late tonight?”
“Shit, it’s really you.” His suspicion toward me only lessened marginally. “Do you know her?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah. She’s cool.” Monk kept glancing toward the gun, licking his lips. Sweat was starting to bead on his temples. He wiped his face. “So, everything is fine, right? Where is everyone?”