Winds of Fire (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #5)

by Malone Wright, Jennifer

  We ran into more soldiers along the way and took them out with an easy shot from the tranq guns. I was just beginning to think that this mission might be easier than we thought when things started going downhill. We were only feet from the stairwell that would take us down another level, when the thunder of booted feet reverberated through the halls.

  With the echo, it was hard to tell which way the sound was coming from. I turned one way and then the other, preparing for the appearance of our enemy at the moment. My lips opened to form the words, to ask Alice to put the shield around us, when a loud crack echoed in my ears.

  Alice screamed, lurching forward and grabbing her thigh. Oscar, reached out and caught her before she hit the floor. It was suddenly like it was all in slow motion. I was torn between searching for the enemy and eliminating the threat, or pushing my way through the group to help Alice.

  Oscar pulled her arm around his shoulders and held her by the waist. She still had one hand pressed to her thigh, where blood seeped out from between her fingers.

  Turns out, I didn’t have time to do either of those options because the thundering stopped and a group of soldiers appeared on each side of us. They had trapped us, and apparently they had spotted Alice and what she could do so they took her out first.

  Ok. Hardball it would be.

  Through her pain, Alice saw what had happened and I felt the slight shimmer of magic around me, but the full protection of the shield never rose. She was injured and her body was putting all of its energy into that, no matter how hard she tried.

  Oscar murmured softly to her, “Don’t. You can’t help right now.” He gazed down at her with worry in his eyes and then reluctantly tore his gaze away and in a loud, but firm voice addressed the enemy. “Go. What you are doing here is hurting innocent people. Lower your weapons and leave this place. Walk away and keep walking until daylight breaks. When the sun shines upon your face, you will feel better than you have felt for a long time, but you will not remember this place. The Pentagon and the Department of Defense will become a lost memory.”

  I’d seen Oscar’s gift at work, but never like this. Every single soldier surrounding us lowered their gun and glanced around, appearing confused. That confusion was soon replaced with a determined, almost robotic look in their eyes as they wordlessly turned and marched toward the exit.

  I was aware of my jaw hanging a bit slack as I watched the people who were shooting at us only moments ago, just walk away as if they didn’t even see us there. Only after they were completely out of sight, did I turn my attention back to Alice.

  I hurried to her side. “Let me see,” I asked softly.

  She had tears running down her cheeks and her teeth were clenched over her lip in order to keep her pain silent. With a slight nod, she moved her hand away. The wound still had blood flowing steadily from within and when she moved her hand away it worsened.

  Quickly, I set my gun down and lifted my tee shirt over my head. It wasn’t the cleanest because I’d been wearing it since we left home, but it was going to have to do. I pulled and tore the fabric into a long strip and wrapped it around her thigh.

  She flinched at the touch, gasping in pain.

  “It’s all right, baby,” Oscar soothed her. “It doesn’t hurt that bad.”

  I knew he was using his siren voice to help her feel better and that was totally fine with me. I finished tying the shirt around her leg and glanced up at Oscar. “She’s going to be fine as long as we get this treated soon. The bullet went in one side and out the other. It doesn’t look like it hit the bone, but we won’t know for sure until she sees the doctor.”

  He nodded solemnly. “She is going to be so pissed when she gets over the shock.”

  I smiled even though it wasn’t funny. “I know.” I patted him on the shoulder and turned to Daniels. “Lead the way.”

  “We’re almost there,” he replied, gesturing toward the stairwell.

  We followed Daniels down the stairwell and through a section that appeared to be the opposite direction of the cells we were kept in before. We moved a bit slower for Alice, but she was being a trooper and moving along pretty quickly for someone who took a bullet to the leg.

  It wasn’t long before we approached a set of double doors with no label to distinguish what was within. He halted and pointed to the entrance, signaling that was where we were going.

  I positioned myself on one side of the doors and he went to the other, one of our fellow Hunters took the middle and we waited for the signal. Daniels counted on his fingers, one, two, three, and on the third finger I lifted my boot and kicked the doors open.

  Daniels did the same on his side. I went right and scanned the area for anything that moved. I didn’t spot anything right away and moved further into the room. I heard the rest of the team moving in behind us since they didn’t hear any shots and assumed it was clear.

  The room beyond the double doors was a lab. It had all kinds of machines and medical equipment in stations all over the place. The white, sterile environment was just like a hospital, only creepier.

  “Where are they?” I whispered.

  “Follow me,” Daniels whispered back.

  He followed the left wall of the room, leading us past a bank of desks with computers, which were turned off, telling me that no one had been on them for a while. I guess the lab only ran during business hours.

  Soon, we reached another set of doors, identical to the first ones. This time, instead of bursting in, Daniels soundlessly pushed the swinging door open and stepped inside. I was right behind him, quietly slipping through into a special kind of hell.

  “Oh my God,” Someone muttered from behind me, and I couldn’t disagree at all.

  More cells made of glass lined three of the walls. Each of the cells held nothing but a vampire. At first glance, you would think that the vampires inside were near death, but having learned about vampires my entire life, I knew that they could live forever on the tiniest bit of blood. They could weaken and wither, but still live.

  I agreed that it was awful, what was happening to these vampires, but at the moment there was only one thing on my mind and that was finding Chloe. Slowly, I walked past the vampires, separated from them only by the thick glass wall.

  Some of them turned our way was we passed, others appeared to be asleep on the floor, since they weren’t even given a bed to ease their captivity. One male vampire stood so close to the glass that I could see scars covering almost every inch of his bare arms. He stood as still as a statue, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes red with blood lust.

  Those eyes followed me as I passed. It was the most awkward feeling, having my natural enemy so close, yet untouchable. I knew without a doubt that he was so starved for blood without the glass holding him back he would have attacked me.

  The next cell held a blonde, female vampire who was completely the opposite of Mr. Silent beside her. She had been crouched in the corner, sitting on the balls of her feet and rocking back and forth. But, the moment she got a whiff of our human blood her head snapped up, revealing sunken red eyes which glowed brightly against her pale white skin.

  She rushed the glass, seeming to forget that she wouldn’t be able to get to us. The instant her body hit the wall a bright blue light flashed and she was thrown backward against the stone wall behind her. Her body seizured and then fell still.

  I had stopped to watch, morbidly curious to see what was going to happen to her. After about ten seconds the cell lit up with a bright light, only a flash, and the blonde vampire screamed, writhing in pain. Her skin had burned away in all exposed areas, revealing the flesh underneath.

  Good God, this was a punishment for her touching the glass.

  That thought churned in my mind for a moment when Daniels stepped up beside me. “The glass won’t withstand repeated force from them. It’s the same with the cells you were in, that’s the only reason I know.”

  The skin began to regenerate before our eyes, slowly healing itself
while the vampire lay unmoving on the floor. I shook my head in denial. “I need to find Chloe,” I whispered, refusing to let fear get the best of me.

  The rest of the team had also paused to take in the state of the vampire prisoners. Yeah, we killed vampires, it was what we were born and bred to do, but torturing them was not something we would ever do.

  “Come on.” Luke appeared beside me. “We need to move on.”

  I nodded, sparing one last glance at the cell and the vampire who suffered within. Funny, I never thought that I would feel sorry for one of the demons we hunted on a daily basis. It was not a feeling I liked very much at all.

  Chloe.

  Yes, it was time to go. The team moved forward again, making our way around perimeter of the room. Before I knew it, we happened upon another door, only this one was labeled in big black letters “Laboratory. Restricted Access”

  Without hesitation, I lifted my gun with one hand and pushed open the swinging door with the other. The team was right behind me, ready for anything, or anyone. A hospital bed, stood high in the middle of the room and there, on the bed, was Chloe.

  Her arms were strapped to the gleaming metal rails and a wide strap held her legs in place. Her eyes fluttered a bit as if she may have heard us come in, but she was mostly unconscious. Beside the bed, an IV stand held bags of fluid, which were being pumped into her veins. Little suction cups with wires attached were hooked up to a bank of machines and a low beeping was the only sound that broke the silence.

  Chloe turned her head to the side and I saw the perspiration beaded at her brow. Her charcoal hair had become so damp that it was practically plastered to the side of her pale cheek. My God, her skin was whiter than I’d ever seen it.

  “No.” I was barely aware that the word had actually slipped from my lips. I bolted for the bed with a mixture of relief that we had found her and a boiling rage for the people who had done this to her.

  “Drew, wait.” Luke tried to stop me, but I kept going. Nothing was going to keep me from her.

  I reached for the straps at her arms. Thank goodness they were just a simple buckle. Her lids fluttered again as if she was trying to open them but couldn’t. “Drew?” she croaked.

  “Shhh,” I soothed her as I loosened the first buckle. “We’re getting you out of here.”

  She blinked a few times and then her eyes closed all the way again. I looked down at her arm and saw track marks … a lot of them. Those bastards took her blood, and not just a little bit. She was weak from loss of blood.

  I was going to kill someone for this.

  “Dammit,” I muttered, hurrying around the bed to get her other arm. Luke began removing the IV and the sensors so that we would be able to move her when I got the straps removed. My eyes flicked up toward the team. A few of them were standing guard, weapons at the ready, just in case someone entered the room. The ones who weren’t, were staring at Chloe with surprised and angry expressions.

  When I finally had all of her restraints taken off and Luke had freed her from the medical equipment, I tucked my gun into the back of my jeans and scooped her up into my arms. It was then that she regained enough consciousness to lift her head just a tiny bit.

  “Drew?” Her eyes were still glossy, but she opened them enough that I knew she had focused on me for a second.

  “It’s me.”

  Her head fell back down into the crook of my elbow. “Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” she asked me. As bad as the whole situation was at the moment, I smiled and shook my head. Here she was, being tortured and used for testing, and she was worried about where my shirt was.

  “Don’t worry about that right now,” I told her, even though she may not have heard me.

  The team turned around and headed back through the door into the room with the cells. I held Chloe, situated toward the center of the group so that we would have protection all around as we did our best to escape.

  We had only gone a few steps into the room when I knew without actually seeing them that we weren’t alone.

  “Son of a bi…” Zander cursed at the sight of eight soldiers lining the walls in front of the glass cells. He didn’t get to finish his sentence though because Ahlman strode out in front of his men. He was limping, but still breathing.

  I guess it may be time to change that last part.

  “Well, well … why am I not surprised that you would bring a team of Hunters back with you.”

  I didn’t answer. It’s not like he really wanted an answer either though. But, my anger flashed and that same pressure I’d felt back in the cell began to push on my brain again. Ahlman shook his head as if he were disappointed in us.

  “You may as well have just stayed here with us instead of running away.”

  I stepped forward with Chloe in my arms, and lifted my chin up in defiance. “You, are the worst general in the history of the United States.”

  That evil old man shook his head and clicked his tongue at me. “That is where you are wrong. We are doing all this,” he gestured to the vampire cells. “We need to find out what their every weakness is. It is crucial that we find out every detail about their regenerative traits so that the research can be used in the future.” He threw his hands up, “Hell, we may even find the cure for cancer with this project.”

  “From now on, you do it without her,” I growled.

  “Again, you are wrong. Vampire blood can heal a human, but there are some awful side effects that come with it, plus it can be highly addictive. Our Chloe here, her blood is vampire blood, but it is also diluted enough with human blood that it is the perfect cocktail for healing humans.”

  “Yeah, well I think that if you really wanted her blood, you would want her alive and healthy. Not half dead and drained of most of her blood. Then what happens when she dies. You’re a liar Ahlman.”

  The air pulsed, pushing against my body as if it wanted inside, but couldn’t quite get there. I fought the urge to drop Chloe and curl up in a little ball to fend off the pain. She moaned and rolled her head away from my shoulder.

  Ahlman contemplated my accusations. “I have no need to lie. You are insignificant to our plan, just a glitch in the system, so to speak.”

  I didn’t respond, instead, I stared past him at the cells that held the vampires. The creatures watched the confrontation with interest, probably wondering who was going to die today.

  “A glitch that needs to be eliminated,” Ahlman continued and raised his hand high into the air.

  Behind me, I heard the chorus of clicks from the team as they readied their weapons. The soldiers lined up behind Ahlman also prepared to fire. I felt a sudden wave of magic and knew that Alice was trying to raise her shield, but she couldn’t. Her injury was using all of her energy.

  My eyes closed and I willed the pressure enclosing on me to go the other way. I was unable to hold a weapon, so this was all I had and it was definitely worth a shot.

  Suddenly, the pressure released, bursting away from my body like an invisible tsunami. The wave crashed into all those around me, blowing them backward along with everything else in the room.

  Desks flew into the air and dropped hard into the floor. Papers scattered, caught on the wind and fluttered angrily as they were blown in every direction.

  At the same time, the glass on the cells popped and shattered, forced inward by the air which was stronger than any vampire.

  And that was when all hell broke loose.

  The vampires didn’t hesitate for even a second. In a flash, they were on top of the soldiers who were picking themselves up off the floor. Teeth sunk into human flesh, replenishing the blood they had lost and sating their hunger.

  I also didn’t hesitate. I had to get Chloe out and I wouldn’t be able to fight my way out while holding Chloe. Luke, Daniels and Zander formed a semi-circle of protection around us as we inched our way out of the fray.

  Screams of pain and terror resounded off the walls. It was the sound of a massacre. The vampires tore into one s
oldier and then went right on to the next. None of the soldiers tried to save their buddies, if they were alive and able to escape, that is exactly what they did.

  I caught sight of Ahlman on the floor, leaning on one arm and staring at the chaos that was unfolding before his very eyes. His people were being slaughtered because of him. Not that I felt sorry for him, it was exactly the opposite, I didn’t care.

  “I’ll be back.” Zander tossed a glance over his shoulder and met my eyes. I nodded, but inside I was wishing he would just leave him to die at the hands of a vampire.

  Ahlman saw Zander coming and his eyes grew wide as he raised his .45, aiming right at Zander. In one fell swoop, Zander spun and kicked out, knocking the weapon from the Generals grasp.

  “You know who that girl is?” Zander shouted at him. “That half vampire is my sister, and I refuse to lose more of my family, especially to an evil psycho like you.” He knelt down so that his face was right in front of Ahlman’s.

  “Just kill me.” Ahlman’s voice was resigned. He glanced over at the vampires feasting on his men and then back at Zander.

  Zander followed his gaze. “It is my job to rid the world of evil like you.” He placed the barrel of his gun against Ahlman’s forehead. Ahlman closed his eyes, preparing to have his brains blown out. “But, I think that I will leave you for the masses this time.” He pulled the gun away.

  “But …”

  “Shut up, General. Killing you now would be too nice a punishment for what you’ve done.”

  “I just wanted to help people. Bring the world back to us.”

  “It’s one thing to kill a demon, but to torture living beings, especially one who is still human, for your own cause is not the way to accomplish that.”

  “There must be sacrifices.”

  Zander nodded again, “Yes, there must be.” He looked up and called to the vampire whom I’d seen when we first came in. “Hey, big guy, over here.” He waved and pointed at Ahlman.

  The vamp licked his lips and bounded over to them in a single leap. He stared down at the General, his eyes glowing fiercely with blood lust. Then, he turned to Zander and their eyes locked. Zander pointed again. “I give you this one, if you help get us out of here.”