I headed for the door leading through to the solitary cells, then paused, spotting a shape sticking out from behind one of the crates. Dread rose up within me. I realized that I was looking at a black leather shoe with its toe pointing upward. I approached, and the shadows retreated, revealing first the legs, then the rest of the body.
Travis’s white hair was matted with blood, and savage wounds cut through his neck. Blood pooled beneath him, having long since stopped flowing. I stood there, staring, unsure of what I should do. Then I heard a scream.
I turned and sprinted for the solitary cells. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it was Alex. I sprinted to Ally’s cell, pulled open the slot. It looked empty, which probably meant she was hiding under the bed. I dashed to the next room and checked that. Dennis was sat on the bed, staring at the wall. He didn’t turn to look at me.
I continued to the next door, pulled open the slot. The bed was overturned, bedclothes strewn across the room. A naked figure lay huddled in the corner.
“Alex?”
A bloodied tear-streaked face turned my way. “Help me.” His voice came out in a croak.
A figure dashed across from the other side of the room, flying at him. Alex raised his arms, cowering into a shell. At the sound of several loud smacks, I pounded my palms against the door. “Stop!” I shouted.
Katie turned her head to stare at me. She bared her teeth and hissed. Her black eyes were bloodshot, and her tangled hair stood up on her head, calling to mind Medusa’s snakes. Dried blood and dirt plastered her face. Without having transformed, she looked more like an animal than any shade.
“Hold on, Alex. I’ll get you out.” I backed away from the door, looking around. If I could have used my multani; the firesword would have cut through the door in an instant. The titanium shielding didn’t rid me of all my abilities, but I wasn’t strong enough to break through the reinforced door. I needed to find keys.
I raced for the door through to the main part of Gorlam’s. It was unlocked, and I flung it open, hurrying down the corridor, heading toward Director Wells’s office. I turned a corner and collided straight into Doctor Kressan. I managed to grab her before she fell, but her glasses went flying.
“What’s going on?” She bent down and patted the carpet around her feet before her fingers found the glasses. She picked them up and put them on.
“I need your keys,” I told her.
“You can’t just demand...”
“I don’t have time to explain.” I grabbed her handbag and dumped everything out until I came to a bunch of keys. I dropped the bag.
“This is highly irregular,” Doctor Kressan said.
“Which are the keys to the solitary cells? Quick.”
“The longest ones.”
“Like this one?” I selected a thin copper key.
“What’s going on?” Doctor Kressan knelt down, scooping up what had spilled from her purse.
“I recommend you take the rest of the day off. Or at the very least stay in your office for the next few hours.” I ran back the way I had come.
At the door to Katie’s cell I jammed a thin copper key into the lock and twisted. It didn’t turn. I selected a similar key that also failed to turn. Finally, the third key clicked the lock open. I grabbed hold of the handle of the door, then hesitated.
I looked through the slot. Alex was still crouched in the corner, but Katie lurked out of sight. How was I to get Alex out without freeing Katie?
Before I had figured out a plan of action, footsteps slapped behind me. As I tried to turn, a hand grabbed my arm, shoving me against the wall. I shook my left hand free, then aimed an elbow behind me. It landed with a satisfying thud, and the grip on me loosened. I half-turned—enough to catch a glimpse of a spider web tattooed face—then my face was slammed back against the wall, and my arms were locked behind me.
“Kill him,” a woman’s voice said.
I struggled, but the grip on me just tightened. I kicked backward with my foot, missed, and received a punch in the lower back in return. It was hopeless; the shades had as much strength as me, and at least three of them were holding me.
The door beside me sprang open, knocking one of the shades back. I twisted around and came face to face with Katie, who had just charged out of her cell. We both paused for an instant, then she turned and dashed down the corridor. I also tried to flee, but I only made it three steps before a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my legs.
I slithered forward but couldn’t shake my legs free of the arms clinging onto them. Up ahead, Katie passed through the doorway and disappeared behind a row of crates. A weight crashed down on my back, trapping one of my arms underneath me. I flailed out with my free hand, trying to dislodge whoever was on top of me, but I couldn’t even reach him.
A hand pushed my face against the cold tiles of the floor.
“Lock the cell up again,” Heff said. “Don’t let Alex Collier get free.”
Footsteps walked away. A door shut, then a lock clicked. The footsteps returned, and a woman leaned down. I recognized her as the shade who’d attacked me with thick cords of smoke. She was in her mid twenties with sharp elfin features and short black hair.
“What about him?” she asked. “Are you seriously not going to kill him? He already attacked us.”
Heff leaned down beside her, peering into my face. “He was defending himself, Zara. We were doing the attacking.”
“Doesn’t change that we all could have been killed for a bloody empty truck,” Zara said.
“That was the boy’s doing,” Heff said. “And if spending all day in a room with that crazy girl hasn’t made him regret what he did to us, nothing will.”
“If you’ll just let me and Alex go, no one else has to get hurt,” I said.
Heff ignored me. “Even if this crystal works the way Director Wells claims, sentinels are too useful to just kill one who might switch to our side.”
“Only Yarley thought I could switch,” I said. “And the stupid bastard died for his mistake.”
Heff straightened and kicked me in the face.
Pain exploded in the back of my head, and blood spurted from my nose. Me and my big mouth.
“What do we do with him?” Zara asked. “He’s too dangerous to allow outside the titanium shielding.”
“How’s that cage coming along, Jonesy?” Heff asked.
“Another few hours,” a man’s voice replied.
“You claimed to be the best metalworker in the city,” Heff said. “I’ll give you another hour. It doesn’t have to be pretty.”
“Are you thinking of putting him in it?” Jonesy asked. “What about the girl?”
“She’s escaped now. Plus, I’m not sure she can be helped. When shades go feral during birth, it’s extremely difficult for their sanity to return.”
“I designed the cage for children,” Jonesy said.
“Don’t worry, he’ll fit,” Heff said. “He’s not as big as he thinks he is. Unlock one of those empty cells, we’ll throw him in there for now.”
Chapter 24
Thursday 18:40
I strode back and forth. Only two strides took me from one side to the other, so even that was frustrating. I glanced back toward the door. Zara’s face was visible through the slot, watching me. Just give me an excuse, you know I want to kill you, the expression on her face said.
I sat down on the bed. The pacing hadn’t helped me come up with any kind of plan. Perhaps Sash would arrive, but as far as I knew she wasn’t even aware that I was here, so I had to plan without expecting her help. The titanium kept me from summoning my fireswords, and I could see no obvious weaknesses inside the cell. And even if I did, I couldn’t do much with Zara watching.
“Are you not tired of staring at me?” I asked Zara. “Is my animal magnetism that compelling?”
Her lips pressed in a firm line, and she continued to stare at me with a strange intensity. I had yet to meet anyone from Brimstone with the slightest sense of humor
, except...
I should try to bring Jerome back on my side. He had helped against Yarley and even if he couldn’t help, at least I wouldn’t feel alone.
Jerome, I’m sorry, I thought.
No reply.
Jerome. Please. I need you.
What a surprise! He gets in trouble and comes crawling back to me.
I’m not crawling... I shook my head. I didn’t want to argue. What to you want from me? So you want acknowledgment. I tried to figure out what Jerome wanted me to say. You are not just a necklace. You are a... I hesitated. You are a friend.
You think I care about that touchy feely crap? Jerome thought. I want something real.
Despite what he said, I had a feeling that calling him a friend did make him happy. It made me feel good, at least. Tyler and Pete had talked about how the line between good and bad wasn’t clearcut. Elementals possessing humans were one of the worst parts of the supernatural world, and Jerome had even tried to possess me. Yet he had become a friend. What do you want, Jerome?
I want to live. I want a body of my own.
So, you’re going to wait until I’m weakened then try to steal mine, right? I’ve come to terms with that, and consider it a quirk of our friendship. Maybe we are more like frenemies.
No. You’re ugly, and you smell bad. I want a different body.
Everyone smells bad some of the time, I protested. What do you mean a different body?
And you have to help me get it.
There’s absolutely no way I’m willing to help you possess someone.
Then we’ve nothing to talk about. You don’t get to enjoy the privilege and pleasure of my frenemyship.
Wait. Maybe. Let me think. I couldn’t let him straight-up possess a person. But perhaps a way would crop up.
The door slammed open, and Heff and Jonesy charged in. Before I could react, they had twisted me over and pinned me against the bed.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Heff said.
He wrenched my arm behind my back, straightened it and used it to lever my torso downward. He maneuvered me off the bed, bent over double. Controlling my body with my arm, he forced me out the door. My feet stumbled forward, moving just quick enough to stop my face from hitting the floor.
The titanium cage was in the corridor, and I was forced head first inside it. My head slammed against the bars.
“He won’t fit,” Zara said.
“Does someone have a knife?” Heff asked. “A few jabs in the soles of his feet, and he’ll fit in.”
“Or perhaps we can just cut off the parts that stick out,” she said.
I grabbed the bars of the cage with my hands and pulled, twisting my body around and worming my legs closer to my body until I got everything in. My body became so contorted and squashed up that my head ended up between my knees.
Heff closed and padlocked the cage shut. “It’s amazing what the human body is capable of with the right incentives.”
Heff unlocked Katie’s cell, entered it, then emerged a moment later, holding Alex by his arm. Alex’s struggles were ineffectual, and Heff forced Alex to move toward the warehouse-room full of the titanium crates.
Zara and Jonesy stood on either side of the cage, lifted it up and carried it after Heff. When Alex looked behind him, I saw the despair in his eyes. I wanted to tell him that everything would be alright, but given that I was squashed into cage, nothing I could say would provide any comfort.
Jerome, if we get out of this, I’ll help you find a body. I won’t let you push out someone else’s soul, but we’ll find a way.
Deal, Jerome said.
Now that you’re back on my side—any ideas on how I can get out of this?
No. You’re totally screwed this time.
Even jokey ideas. Beggars can’t be choosers.
You shouldn’t have come on your own, Jerome thought.
That’s not helpful.
I’m playing to my strengths, Jerome thought. Rubbing your nose into how badly you screwed up.
Now I remembered how much I hated Jerome and how annoying he was. Deal’s off. Go back to being silent.
Too late for that. Do you think he’s going to use the summoning crystal to have you possessed?
I hadn’t thought that.
I, for one, welcome our new elemental overlord.
Zara and Jonesy dropped the cage. I grunted as a bar thudded into my gut, and I twisted myself around so my nose wasn’t touching the ground. I wriggled my fingers until I got my hand and wrist outside the cage, then tried to summon a firesword. Nothing.
Heff, watching me, smirked, then lifted Alex up and dumped him on one of the crates, leaving him with his head and legs bowed over the edge of the crate
Other than a pair of gray underpants, Alex was naked. His arms and legs looked thin and spindly. I mentally winced to see Alex like this. I knew how proud he was. To go from wearing suits and having meetings with the mayor to being tossed around naked would hurt him badly.
Heff turned to Zara. “Go get Director Wells. Let’s see if he can do what he claims.”
At the sound of an engine, I turned my head to see the forklift drive in and pick up a crate. A small truck was parked outside with its back open and crates visible inside.
Heff waved the forklift driver over, and the man shut off the engine.
“How’s progress?” Heff asked.
I recognized the man as one of the two wolf shifters who’d been at City Hall when Heff attacked. The second shifter was Jonesy, the self-proclaimed best metal-worker in the city.
“The truck is full.” The forklift driver climbed out. “It’ll take several more trips to empty the place.”
Heff nodded. “Take the truck and unload it. Get back as fast as you can.”
He nodded and went outside to shut the back of the truck.
Alex raised his head. “Stealing the titanium means nothing. We have plenty to get started with and there’s plenty more where that came from. You won’t stop the prison.”
Heff smiled across at Alex. The webbed tattoos on his face changed shape slightly every time his expression changed, though, it never took on a pleasant aspect. His smile held no humor. “You thought you were hot stuff, didn’t you? Only sixteen years old and already the young dynamo who is driving the construction of an important project.” He took a step closer to Alex. “You figured you could make fools of us and that it wouldn’t catch up with you. How did you enjoy your time in the cell?”
Alex let his head fall back and turned away.
Heff leaned down so his face was close to Alex’s. “You were still dressed in a suit when we put you in that cell. Now look at you. Naked and sniveling.” Heff grabbed Alex’s face and twisted it around, forcing Alex to face him. “What did she do to you in there? What hurt you the most? Was it the pain or the humiliation?”
He released Alex’s face and stepped back. “You’ve only a few bruises and scratches on your body and face. The pain in your eyes looks worse. Is it the feeling of powerlessness that hurts so much?”
Zara returned, dragging Director Wells with her.
“Either way it’s pathetic that you became this broken so easily.” Heff turned toward Director Wells. “Even the humans who appear strong are weak. You did good work here.”
Wells shook himself out of Zara’s grasp. “What do you want from me?”
“I want to see the summoning crystal in action.” Heff nodded at Alex. “And I have just the test subject.
“No!” I jerked at the cage. It wasn’t me that Heff intended to have possessed, it was Alex. “No, you can’t.” I threw myself forward as hard as I could. The cage turned onto its side, slamming my body against the bars.
The overturning cage pointed my face in a new direction, and I caught a glimpse of two people hiding behind a crate. I swiftly turned my head so I wouldn’t be caught looking at them.
Florence and Jo.
Chapter 25
Thursday 19:05
Heff pushed my cag
e with his foot so it rose in the air and slammed down again. “Rune can’t contain himself. He wants to see the transformation too.”
Director Wells shook his head. “You don’t understand. I only did it to help children, cure those who had no other hope. It shouldn’t be used on someone like Alex.”
“You wanted to turn the orphans into strong specimens, like me,” Heff said.
“Let me explain.” Director Wells blinked rapidly. “When I first suspected the power of the crystal, I had no intention of using it. To find out more about your world, I went to one of the Lusteer Shade Society meetings. There I saw you talk. You told of how you had been a heroin addict, trying to kill yourself one needle at a time before your transformation. And how afterward you were stronger, and happier. How you felt vital.”
“I know what I said,” Heff said.
“I’ve seen so many leave an orphanage and know that they were destined for a life on the streets or in prison, and I've been powerless to help them. I saw a way I could finally help.” Wells took a small yellow crystal from his pocket. “I chose carefully. Katie, violent and uncontrollable. Dennis, seemingly quiet and innocent but showing all the signs of being a psychopath. Ally, clinically depressed and already self-harming.” He shook his head. “I thought it would help them. But Katie has worsened each day with no end in sight. It’s been a disaster.”
“I’m glad my speech had such an effect on you,” Heff said. “But you didn’t get my full meaning. It’s not just weak humans, like I was, who are elevated when they become shades. Everyone is elevated. Alex can go from being a pretender in a suit to having real power.”
“No,” Director Wells said. “I won’t be part of helping you have a healthy boy become possessed.”
Heff reached across and dug his thumb into Alex’s flesh. Alex screamed. “He is nothing but a sniveling weakling.”
Fire Summoning (The Sentinels Book 2) Page 15