Jack stopped his forward momentum just in time to avoid slamming into the wall. His pounding heart matched the beating of the door that had been their prison seconds before. The two guards in the room were yelling and hammering with abandon. Despite their strength, the door held. Apparently, Leah Noble had thought of everything.
The sounds echoed through the hall.
“We need to get out of here.” Abigail grabbed Jack’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Jack allowed himself to be led. Still shaken by their narrow escape, something tickled the back of his mind. Thus far, their getaway had been perfect, too perfect, like it had been planned on both ends. But that was crazy. Why would they be permitted to escape?
“Jack! Jack are you listening to me?” Abigail stopped at the end of the hall where two paths intersected. Neither one of them led up; one was a hall to the right, the other a closed door on the left. “Which way?”
“I don’t know.” Jack reached for the power inside that separated him as a wizard. The familiar warm feeling appeared like a long-lost friend. Whatever wards Leah Noble had put in place had been contained to the room where they had been held captive. Jack summoned a green flame of magic in his right hand and focused on the way out. Nothing entered into his mind but the idea of escape and the need to find the correct path.
The fire in his hand didn’t move either way. Leah Noble was right. Jack’s powers were infantile compared to her own. His magic had been curated for a single purpose: to track and capture paranormal creatures in the Outland.
“I don’t know.” Jack lowered his hand in frustration. The green flame extinguished. “I can’t tell.”
“The hall, then.” Abigail didn’t hesitate. “We need to keep moving.”
Jack took off at a run behind Abigail, not for the first time admiring her decisive nature.
The hall they followed twisted around a corner. A staircase appeared in front of them, leading up to the main floor of the palace.
“This feels wrong.” Jack jogged to keep up with Abigail as they began climbing the staircase. “Why was it so easy to escape? Why aren’t there more guards patrolling the area? Why did this staircase appear exactly when we needed one?”
Abigail came to a halt. Both wizard and the warrior-in-training took a moment to think on the validity of Jack’s words. The winding staircase that one moment held so much hope for their escape, now seemed sinister, almost begging them to crest the next step.
“You’re right.” Abigail placed her hands on top of her head. She interlaced her fingers, trying to regain her breath. “But what are we supposed to do? We have to go forward. We can’t go back.”
Jack looked around the still room. Stonewalls met the stone stairs, mage lights burned in outlets along the wall. Long banisters that fell from the ceiling sported the queen’s sigil: a black bat in front of two crossed steel swords.
“What are we supposed to do?” Jack repeated Abigail’s words out loud. The hair rose on the back of his neck as shiver ran through him.
At once, a cold breeze snuffed out the mage lights that had burned so diligently a moment before. Jack and Abigail were lost to stumble in the utter darkness.
“I wonder, I wonder … why a little sorcerer and a little warrior would think escaping from a prison I put them in would be so easy.” Leah Noble’s voice drifted up to them from somewhere below. “There will never be escape for you two. I will send my vampire soldiers to hunt you down and bring you, or your bodies, back to me.”
“Run,” Jack whispered as he fumbled for Abigail’s hand in the darkness. Once his palm touched hers, he grabbed onto it as if both their lives depended on the grip.
Abigail interlaced her fingers in his as they stumbled their way to the top of the staircase. More than once they fell, but when one went down, the other was there to pull him or her up and spur them forward.
Jack’s knee slammed into a hard stone step in front of him, and a shock of dull pain rushed over his wound. Hot, fresh blood poured over the new laceration.
“You’re making my job too easy.” Leah was so close somewhere behind them in the dark, they could hear her heavy breaths. “A fresh blood trail to follow? How have you two survived this long on your own?”
Jack slammed face-first into a door he couldn’t see. More blood gushed from his nose. Water filled his eyes, not that he could see, anyway. Both Jack and Abigail maneuvered their hands over the door in the darkness in a panicked state.
Abigail found the latch, throwing open the door. The light of the recently risen sun blinded them both. Falling over one another, they ran to their freedom.
“Run, run while you still have legs!” Leah Noble’s voice filled the space behind them. “When I get my hands on you, I’m going to make you wish you had never been born.”
Chapter Thirteen
Leah
“A bit overdramatic, don’t you think? I mean, the whole ‘spooky witch’ thing, really?”
Leah allowed the purple magic swirling around her to fade as she left her magically projected form and returned to the balcony with Queen Eckert. She rolled her eyes at her older sister.
“Kids these days expect everything to be a bit dramatic. It’s how they see the world. Besides, I think I did a great job.” Leah flipped her long, dark hair behind her head. “They were second-guessing themselves on the stairs. I guess I did make it a bit too easy for them to escape. I’ll have to remember that for next time. But look at them run! It’s a bit amusing, you have to admit.”
Leah looked out over the balcony attached to the rest of the palace. The secret stairwell she had encouraged Jack and Abigail to escape through let out into the palace’s back garden. Both witch and queen were given the perfect view of a bleeding Jack and Abigail making their way through the garden and to the rear gate. The soldiers who were normally on duty were still there. It would give the two a better sense of satisfaction that they had actually evaded capture if they were chased a few blocks into the city.
“And you’re sure they’ll lead us to Sloan?” The queen followed her sister’s gaze to the retreating figures. “Remember—”
“I know, I know.” Leah took her eyes off Jack and Abigail’s backs. “Captain Charlotte Sloan is to be captured alive. What you see in that girl is beyond me, but I must admit, if the reports on her escape are true and she is as strong and as fast as they say she is, then she’ll make a great test subject.”
“No, Sloan is not to become one of your pets.” The queen motioned for her younger sister to follow as she made her way into the palace. “You have enough anyway. Reassure me that we didn’t just let those two escape.”
“Don’t worry.” Leah followed her sister through the palace halls and to one of the many other outside balconies. “I have them being tracked now and they’ll lead us to the others. In fact, we might have already found them. There are reports coming in from a small city called Term that might prove to be your rogue captain and her pet wolf.”
“Good. Continue to monitor the situation and let me know if you find anything worthwhile.” Queen Eckert stopped in front of another pair of double doors that would lead out to a balcony that faced the front of the palace. “I have a little surprise for you, dear sister.”
Leah Noble rubbed her hands together in glee. She tried to get a peek through the windows in the door, but all she could see was the rising sun on the horizon. She looked at her sister up and down for an explanation.
The queen wore clothing as different from her own as the darkness was to the day. Leah Noble was dressed in a long, black dress with a low-cut top void of sleeves. Her sister wore a pure white dress with diamonds set in the sewing and a diamond crown to match.
“Don’t keep us in suspense.” Leah grinned. “Besides, I have a training appointment to keep with Elizabeth. She’s progressing through her exercises quite well.”
“Oh, yes the little Ahab.” The queen smiled. “Moving forward on all fronts. I like that. Well, while you’ve been training your
apprentice and staging the escape, I’ve been busy, myself.”
The queen threw open the doors, revealing a side courtyard lined with rows and rows of soldiers standing at attention. There had to be at least a hundred present, all in their uniforms, all carrying weapons and ready to be deployed on a whim. Leah looked over the gathered show of force, feeling let down.
“Uh, I’ve seen our military strength before.” Leah raised an eyebrow in her sister’s direction. “Is there more, or should I get back to work?”
“Look closer.” The queen smiled. “Do you notice anything different about these soldiers?”
Leah walked to the edge of the balcony, intrigued once again. She crossed the stone ground, coming to rest against the stone railing. Her hands made contact with the cold surface as she leaned out to try to get a glimpse at what her sister saw.
The soldiers did look different somehow, maybe a bit bigger. Then, like a cold bucket of water, the real difference slapped Leah in the face. She turned to look at her sister, not believing her own eyes.
“I thought you said Edison Reeves destroyed the vampire elixir when he escaped the palace?”
“He did, and he even took the plans with him on how to make more. Likewise, Doctor Livingston destroyed his own storehouse of the elixir, but in his haste to escape New Hope, it seems he was a bit eager and forgot to also destroy his copy of the blueprints.”
“You were able to make more.” Leah tore her eyes from her sister to admire the ranks and rows of the vampire super soldiers. “How many? How many have you managed to turn?”
“We have a hundred that have completed the transition, with another thousand to be given the elixir by the end of the week.” The queen joined her sister at the very edge of the balcony. “But once again, I need your help.”
“What is it?”
“We need them to be stronger and faster, as strong and as fast as Sloan. When she escaped, she dispatched our vampire soldiers like normal humans. We need to figure out how she was altered.”
“I’ll do it.” Leah let her long fingers drum on the railing as her mind already went to work on the problem. “Jack and Abigail are being tracked. I can use half my days to train Elizabeth and the other half on our new problem. I’ll need more test subjects.”
“Whatever you need, dear sister.” Queen Eckert placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Nothing can come between us and our plan to unite the Outland. The faster we can make these super soldiers and the stronger we can make them, the faster we can begin our invasion.”
Chapter Fourteen
Sloan
Everyone stood still as Sloan’s whistle died in the presence of the still air. The soldiers surrounding every side of the triangle ring looked at one another uneasily.
“There’re twenty rifles pointed at us now.” Sloan looked over to Kimberly. “Don’t do anything rash until help gets here.”
“Help?” Kimberly looked at her confused.
“All right, then.” Captain Tensor took a step forward, confident in his victory. “Hands on your head, step down from the ring, one by one.”
Sloan did as she was instructed, lacing her fingers together and resting them on top of her head.
“Sloan, what are you doing?” Edison did a double take. “We aren’t really going to surrender to these guys, are we? They’ll have us shipped back to New Hope in a second.”
“Trust me.” Sloan began to walk forward. Maneuvering her body through the ring ropes was a bit awkward with her hands on her head, but with difficulty she managed. Every move of her legs and torso reminded her exactly how sore she was.
“Just like that.” Captain Tensor coaxed Sloan forward. Finally, lowering his weapon, he held out a pair of chains. “Thought you were being clever when you turned your back on queen and country, did you? Well, look where it’s gotten you now, you stupid child.”
Any regret Sloan had in her heart for what atrocity was going to soon befall the captain and his soldiers was snuffed out like a candle in the presence of a storming gale.
“Thank you, captain.” Sloan stopped in front of the soldier now with her hands still on top of her head. “You’ve cleared my conscience for what is about to happen to you next.”
Captain Tensor looked like he was about to say something. The words never escaped his lips. Instead, a howl permeated the air around the entire group. A howl so chilling, it even made Sloan shiver in its presence.
Easy girl, he’s on your side, Sloan reminded herself. At least, I hope he’s still on my side.
The howl came again, now so close, soldiers were looking all around them for the origin of such a noise. Then, a black mass materialized from over the east wall. Everyone gasped and shouts ripped through the air as musket fire erupted in a volley of sparks and smoke.
Sloan ran from her spot near Captain Tensor. She almost forgot Elwood’s sound advice. Before she turned to join her friends in the ring, she placed a swift kick to the captain’s nether regions. He crumpled to the ground like a marionette with broken strings.
“Wait, don’t shoot him!” Sloan slid back into the ring under the ropes. She placed herself in front of Kimberly’s two guards, who were struggling to find targets in the mayhem happening outside the ring. “He’s a friend.”
“Are you crazy?” With wild, wide eyes, Kimberly was looking at the monster Aareth had become. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What have you become my friend?” Edison looked on with a sadness Sloan had never seen from the energetic scientist. “What have you become?”
“You have to trust me on this one.” Sloan grabbed both rifles Kimberly’s guards held, one in each hand. She twisted the muzzles up, bending both weapons so they would be incapable of firing a single round.
The two guards looked at one another with wide eyes.
“Kill them!” Captain Tensor’s voice found room over the sharp rings of gunfire. “Kill the traitors in the ring.”
Sloan and the rest of the group in the ring hit the canvas as rifles swung toward them and sent a shower of lead in their direction. Sloan chanced a look over to where Aareth was tearing soldiers limb from limb.
He was a mass of black fur, bloody teeth, and claws. Wherever he turned, death followed in his wake. He had already worked his way through one side of the triangle ring and was making short work of the next. In seconds, he would be on the final section where Captain Tensor was still shouting to his men to ignore the beast and kill everyone in the ring.
Sloan knew she couldn’t let her friends lie there and be targets for the soldiers to pick off. As tired as she was, she forced herself to her feet once again.
Her muscles screamed at her, but there was no other option. Sloan needed to be a shield for those who couldn’t protect themselves.
Bullets ripped at her arms and legs. They felt like punches that brought a stinging sensation with them, but in a heartbeat, the pain was gone and Sloan’s body was already beginning the healing process.
“You!” Captain Tensor ignored Aareth, who had already rounded the corner and was tearing into the men right next to the captain. “This is all your doing!”
Captain Tensor reached into his belt and pulled out a flintlock pistol. With a smooth, practiced motion, he extended his arm. His left eye closed as he took aim.
Sloan had to give the man credit. Aareth was baring down on him and still the captain held his cool.
That was the last thing Sloan remembered as the bullet from his pistol struck her in the head. She stumbled backwards, and everything went black.
Chapter Fifteen
Sloan
“It’s obvious he’s not going to recover. All we can do now is make his last few moments as comfortable as possible.”
“And what about her and that huge wolf thing outside?”
“Sloan’s vitals are stable; she was just knocked unconscious. Aareth is another matter. We’ll have to do tests to see if he can change back to his human form at all.”
S
loan blinked her eyes open. She was in a room with a wooden ceiling and brick walls. She was lying on her back on some kind of table. Sitting up brought another wave of soreness that washed over her body.
“You should really get some more rest.” Edison rushed to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Your body has been through a tremendous amount of trauma in a very short amount of time.”
“Who? You said somebody wasn’t going to make it.” Sloan pushed off Edison’s hand. “What happened to me?”
“You took a bullet in the skull, and all it did was knock you out,” Kimberly said, moving to stand next to Edison.
The mayor of Term’s face was still bruised and bloodied. If the gargoyle harbored any ill-will toward her or Edison, she didn’t show it.
“You’ve only been out for a few minutes.” Edison cleared his throat, preparing himself to say whatever was coming next.
“Aareth?” Sloan half-ran, half-stumbled to the window. She was on the second story. When she looked outside, she confirmed as much. Her view gave her the perfect line of sight to a rising sun and the black wolf creature in the backyard.
“He’s fine. It’s Doctor Livingston.” Edison motioned to a door that led into an adjacent room. “He took a bullet to the chest during the fight. He’s—he’s not going to make it.”
Sloan gave Edison a look of hate he didn’t deserve. She rushed into the next room as fast as her wobbling legs would take her. It was a study, with bookshelves lining the walls and a fireplace in the corner. Chairs had been moved to the side for a bed to be brought in.
Oliver lay in the bed, pasty white, with beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. His glasses were gone, lost somewhere in the rush to bring him upstairs, no doubt. He opened his eyes when he heard Sloan approach.
“A bullet to the head?” His breathing came in short and shallow gasps. “I would never have thought you were going to become what you are now. You are amazing, Charlotte Sloan, and what this world needs now more than ever.”
House of Spells: (A Paranormal Urban Fantasy) (The Vampire Project Book 3) Page 6