Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  The Myrmidons knew they were here. They were waiting, of course. Sam wondered if they even were out searching for her in the city.

  ‘Tollin,’ she said numbly. ‘What do we do?’

  He swallowed. Slowly, Tollin’s hands reached for the keyboard.

  Marus grabbed his wrists. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

  Tollin blinked. ‘It wants us to reply. Look, whoever it is already knows we’re here and has probably known for some time.’

  Marus didn’t let go. ‘That doesn’t mean you go start chatting with them! I told you this was a trap!’

  Tollin didn’t answer.

  ‘You knew, didn’t you?’

  Tollin glowered. He peevishly jerked his wrists free. ‘Of course not! Do you think I would have led Samantha Turner in here if I knew it was a trap?’

  Marus groaned. ‘Oh, why do I let you talk me into this?’

  The private room suddenly felt much more like an observatory, and the three of them were the unwitting test subjects.

  Tollin’s throat clicked drily as he swallowed. His hand found Sam’s, instead of stretching back to the keyboard. ‘When I give the word, run.’

  That’s when the lights went out.

  And that was when things went wrong.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  For a brief second no-one moved. Then Tollin let out a yell, dashing towards the entrance. There was a loud slam! and the metal doors leading into the glass room slid shut, latching with cold finality. He skid to a halt with a roar.

  They were in almost complete darkness. The only light was the pulsing of the red stones in the arch and Sam’s ring. Tollin’s grip was tight around her hand, anchoring her to something in the flashing, disorientating blackness. ‘Do they honestly think they can keep us in here?’ Marus growled. ‘The room is made of glass!’

  ‘Uh, I wouldn’t—’ Tollin started to interject as Marus chambered a round in his firearm and aimed at the glass.

  Tollin shouted at him just as Marus pulled the trigger. The blast was amplified in the small space, making Sam’s ears ring. The projectile, instead of punching a hole through the glass, ricocheted off of it. Tollin threw himself over Sam as the bullet whizzed past them, before coming to rest somewhere at the back of the room.

  ‘Will you knock it off!’ Tollin snapped, releasing Sam. ‘You’re not helping!’

  There was a crackle of static overhead and an intercom speaker came to life. ‘Ah, yes, listen to the wisdom of the Traveller. He will surely come up with a clever solution to this little problem.’ The voice was full of mockery.

  Tollin scowled. ‘Well, you obviously know me. I’m afraid I don’t have the pleasure of knowing your name. Are you Avery Roth, by chance?’

  Her eyes started to adjust to the darkness. The red glow of the stone turned the room to blood. It was dizzying, disorientating. She daren’t let go of Tollin for fear of being lost.

  There was a chuckle. ‘Oh, we’ll be introduced soon enough. You’re a clever boy, cracking that coded message, coming here when the base was empty. I’m impressed. It takes a good deal of work to trap a catch like you.’

  Tollin’s fingers disentwined from Sam’s. He started to slowly walk round the room, eyes scanning the glass walls. He made a slight gesture to Marus which Sam didn’t understand before coming to a stop in the centre of the room.

  He stood tall, shoulders squared, defiant and completely in control, despite their situation. ‘I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone our meeting for some other time,’ he said, bored. ‘We’re a bit busy. Have a lot to do.’

  He nodded to Marus and the man swivelled round, away from the glass, firearm raised. He aimed the weapon not at the chair, but at the cables connected to it. Tollin lunged forward, pulled Sam to him. Marus pulled the trigger.

  The blast was spectacular—and in the confined space—agonising. Sam’s ears roared with sound. The bright electrical flash from the explosion was blinding. Even with Tollin as a shield, her body was still thrown by the shock of it. Her head was spinning, tossing the room about like a ride at a funfair. Before she could recover, Tollin grabbed her hand and was pulling her up.

  The blast from the damaged cables had blown a sizable hole in the glass. The frame of the gateway above the chair was listing dramatically to one side. Sam had one last look at the damaged device, and the great, glaring red stone, like some evil eye, before Marus hauled her through the hole in the glass.

  ‘Some other time, then?’ Tollin said with a quirky smile, before ducking out of the shattered glass and into the dark hallway after them. He flashed Sam another wild grin as his fingers found their place, winding back through Sam’s.

  He then looked left and right down the dark halls, eyes wide, brain racing so wildly Sam could loudly pick it up inside of her own head, nothing but disjointed words and frantic ticking.

  ‘Well, genius, which way?’ Marus growled, the human quality of his voice was gone now.

  Tollin nodded his chin towards one of the black halls. ‘There’s a lift this way.’

  In the few brief seconds she had, Sam was rather proud she wasn’t terrified. She was certainly afraid, but perhaps more than that, she was irritated. She was annoyed that they’d been tricked, annoyed that they hadn’t destroyed the gateway and annoyed that they were in danger.

  She stopped herself. Were those thoughts even hers? She glanced up to Tollin as they slid around a corner. Her mind was in such a jumble she couldn’t sort which thoughts were hers and which were Tollin’s. Whether his thoughts or her own, she agreed with them.

  Up ahead, the hallway split left and right, both of which were much too dark for Sam’s liking. Tollin was snarling in frustration. She heard the loud banging noise of doors being thrown wide and the smacking of boots on metal. They were no longer alone.

  The thing in her ring was desperately wanting to stop and run to their pursuers, and that was enough to send the hair on the back of her neck rising. Sam’s mind whirled about just what would happen if they were caught but then Tollin started moving.

  Red warning lights flashed. A loud siren began blaring, giving Sam a headache. Marus seemed particularly effected. Out of the corner of her eye she saw what she’d not wanted to see: At least twenty Myrmidon guards, all in black and carrying weapons. Behind them followed a man so tall and animalistic she wasn’t sure he could be human. The sight of him sent her blood to freezing.

  The way Tollin guided them was swarming with guards and he was forced to duck down an unknown corridor. He didn’t seem to know where he was, but although Sam could feel his mind racing, she didn’t sense any panic from him. Again, this, like breaking into the building, was his element.

  ‘Well,’ Marus said bitterly, ‘this is going exactly as I imagined it would!’

  Sam gazed up to Tollin. ‘What’s the plan?’

  There was a blast of weapon fire behind them and they all ducked around a corner. Tollin leaned his head up against the wall and groaned bitterly. ‘We could have at least destroyed the thing on our way out!’

  ‘Sorry, I was a little busy trying to escape!’ Marus spat.

  Sam swallowed. ‘Is it just me, or does something feel wrong with this place? Something’s not right. And I saw—’

  ‘Yeah, I think we can all agree something’s not right!’ Marus cut her off.

  Tollin didn’t respond to her words. Either not hearing them or ignoring them because whatever she’d seen was too awful to deal with at the moment.

  Another rapid bout of fire. Marus swung around the corner and returned shots, perspiration glistened across his forehead.

  Tollin finally picked a direction. ‘That way.’

  They made it just as far as the corner when three guards charged around the bend, causing Sam to yelp. Tollin easily tripped one up with a casual ‘Whoops!’ and knocked the next unconscious over the head. Marus took out the third and swiped up another one of the dropped firearms.

  ‘You certainly have a way with
people,’ he remarked.

  Tollin smiled widely. ‘Oh, I just don’t like confrontations.’

  ‘More guards are coming,’ Sam said through clenched teeth. The hallways were echoing with shouts of rage. She couldn’t tear her mind from that giant form of a man marching slowly towards them.

  ‘Good!’ Marus swung around, pistol in each hand. ‘I love a man in uniform!’

  Tollin’s grip around her hand tightened and it was as if the world had slowed. She could suddenly feel her pulse pounding through her veins; feel the much calmer flow of Tollin’s breaths in and out. The smell of smoke and metal stung the air and the slap of their feet made hollow, dead sounds.

  Tollin was preparing himself for some sort of action. He was pulling her senses into him—pulling everything into him—probably unaware he was doing so.

  There was something beneath all of the confusion, something inside of Sam, struggling, pulling. Through Tollin’s fingers, her hand clenched in his, she could see her ring; and it was shining with a light like she’d never seen before.

  ‘Tollin—’

  Something was here in the base. Something to be feared. Something terrible and familiar. There was a seeping, creeping presence drifting towards them, and the thing in her ring had awoken to it. It stirred. It was no longer afraid of Tollin, no longer subdued. It was excited, it was filling with anticipation. Something—or someone—powerful was coming for them. Fear spiked in her and it tipped Tollin off. He stopped dead in his tracks and grabbed her by the shoulders.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Marus shouted.

  ‘Marus,’ Tollin looked to his brother. ‘Human isn’t working anymore.’

  Marus swore. ‘Are you out of your mind? You think I can transform in this tight passageway? Why don’t we just jump the hell out of here?’

  ‘Because I don’t know what will happen if I jump with this ring, and the stone, and the generator all in the same bloody building!’ Tollin’s glower was enough to stop Marus from arguing further.

  Marus swore yet again and tossed the pistols aside. He stretched out his limbs and in less time than Sam could blink, stretched out into the hulking black dragon.

  ‘Keep your eyes on that passage,’ Tollin ordered. He turned his attention back to Sam. ‘What’s wrong? Something’s upset you but I can’t make it out. Tell me what you’re sensing from the ring. Now.’

  Sam shook her head. ‘I don’t know what it is. I just feel something coming. There’s something here.’

  Tollin made a face and turned away. Marus let out a terrible roar and spread his wings wide, blasting the passageway in front of him with fire. Sam could distantly hear the men shouting in surprise and pain as they rounded the corner to find a dragon blocking their path. Something was walking through them, though, as they nursed their burns. Something that wasn’t afraid.

  ‘At long last. This is the end for you. You’re all nothing but fuel. You have no-where to run. You are all ours now.’

  Sam’s eyes rose to meet Tollin’s. ‘It’s coming,’ she said numbly.

  Tollin cocked his head slightly to one side. ‘What’s coming?’

  ‘Something that isn’t human.’

  Tollin sprang to life as if it had been jolted into him. ‘Marus, come on!’

  It was too late, Sam knew it was. She heard Marus shout something and felt the overwhelming sense of bad fill her. Sam couldn’t see much in the red glare, but she saw enough.

  The man, the impossibly tall man. His skin glowed reddened bronze in the dim light, giving Sam the impression he wore body armour beneath his leather jacket and torn jeans. His entire body was bent forward like that of an animal about to pounce, and in the faint light Sam could see black lips pulled back in a terrible, inhuman snarl, revealing sharpened teeth. The animalistic features were not what sucked all warmth from her bones. It was his eyes. Yellow.

  Tollin staggered backwards, shoving Sam behind him with more force than she thought necessary, putting his body as a barrier between her and the giant. Like a thunderclap, Sam realised who the man was: He was one of the Blaiden. But there was something wrong with him; twisted inhuman, monstrous.

  The man opened his mouth and let out a roar that about matched Marus’s own. He lifted his arm and Sam watched dumbly as he casually tossed a small, metallic sphere their direction. The impact of the blast threw them backwards. Sam had a moment of panic when she was ripped from Tollin.

  Her head hit the metal wall with an audible crack! stunning her. She felt nausea roll through her in a vicious wave as the ground tilted wildly. Marus was stumbling around, making choking, whining noises. She couldn’t get out of the way and could only pray he wouldn’t step on her.

  ‘Got ‘em now,’ came a grim voice from somewhere ahead of her.

  Despite the confusion in her body, Sam managed to stumble to her feet. Her legs wobbled beneath her treacherously. Her vision swam. She staggered forwards as the ground beneath her continued to tilt.

  Tollin was several metres away from her and already recovered, on the other side of an opened, automatic door which took up the entire passageway. Sam stumbled his direction; somehow planning on getting Tollin and Marus through to her side of the door and then closing the thing as fast as possible.

  She had almost made to the sliding door when something thunked into the wall before her. A long, thick metal rope was suddenly blocking her way; the end buried into the wall. It hadn’t been there seconds before and it was vibrating with a dangerous, warning power. Her eyes traced it back.

  Her brain was still moving sluggishly. They were shooting the cables at them. And she could make no sense as to why.

  Even as she watched, Sam saw one shoot forward and embed itself in Marus’s thick arm. The dragon roared in pain and thrashed about, accidentally knocking Tollin up against the opposite wall. Another one of the barbed cables hit him. He reared up as much as he was able and yanked it free. He blasted the area before him with fire, tearing the second anchor from his arm messily.

  ‘This isn’t going to work!’ he snarled in painful rage.

  Marus’s body was already shrinking back into human form and he gave out a miserable groan, the wounds from the cables looking much more serious now that he was human.

  ‘Tollin, Marus, come on!’ Sam cried.

  Tollin looked up sharply and his eyes brightened. He bounded forward. Marus slipped and staggered the same direction, clutching at his arm dejectedly. He made it first and slapped the door release the second he got through.

  ‘Wait—’ Sam protested. Tollin was still on the other side.

  ‘He’ll make it, don’t worry,’ Marus said through clenched teeth. He was breathing hard, sweating. Sam glanced down at Marus’s arm and felt her stomach turn over, seeing it drenched in blood.

  The Blaiden man shoved past his comrades, yellow eyes refracting light as they fixed on the three of them. Tollin was almost there.

  Sam had to force down a scream of rage as the horrible man raised his cable weapon and fired. She dove for the closing doorway, her fingers almost brushing Tollin’s. Marus shouted, forgetting his wounds to grab her by the waist and pull her away.

  There was nothing for it. The cable spat forward, punched through Tollin’s shoulder, yanking him off of his feet.

  Sam cried his name, doing her best to lurch away from Marus, who was shaking almost as hard as she was. It was impossible.

  The barbed end of the line had clamped onto Tollin’s shoulder like a mad dog. She could see the current of electricity tear through him. Tollin struggled to his feet, but was pulled back with a mechanical stubbornness he couldn’t fight.

  ‘Marus! Get Sam out of here!’ he cried through a tight jaw.

  The doors ground closed before her and he was gone.

  All of the already dim lights went out and Sam was blind, slumped against the cold metal doors. She pounded a fist in rage. She shouted his name in the darkness and heard a faint cry that was unmistakably his come from behind the door. ‘Get throug
h, I have to get through! It’s me they want, not him. Tollin!’

  It was too late. Deep down she knew that, but she didn’t much give a damn about logic at the moment, so she pounded against the door in frustration.

  Marus had finally let go of her and was now doing a fair job of destroying the door panel.

  She was completely numb. Lost, without Tollin’s hand to hold on to.

  ‘There. They’ll have some trouble trying to get through that way!’ Marus had a torch clenched between his teeth and it was difficult to make out his words. He started forward hesitantly. ‘We’ve got to pick a direction and try it. Damn, it would help if we could see!’

  She whirled round, heart hammering. Surrounding her was utter blackness. She felt like she was a moth flying into a spider’s web. Fear thudded against her like a physical force. The thing in the ring wasn’t helping.

  ‘We can’t just leave him there!’

  Marus did not turn round. ‘It’s too late, Sam. Now come on!’

  She stood still in the darkness, fighting down a growing panic. She was alone. Tollin was gone. Her breath came in short, hysterical pants. No more sounds from the other side of the metal door.

  Whatever she had first sensed was pulling closer. Around her the air grew cool and Sam thought she could hear voices in her ear, fingers pricking at her hair. There was definitely something wrong with this base. Something alive, something powerful, something hungry, and it wanted her. Sam could feel it almost aching for her. Her gaze searched the ceiling. It was up there somewhere, pacing the floor above her, biding its time till she was dragged before it.

  She kept thinking back to the void. That dead Realm with nothing in it but that horrible, devouring presence.

  No. They had not been alone in the dark.

  There had been a light.

  Sam closed her eyes in the darkness, ignoring Marus’s mutterings as he tried to decide where to go, ignoring the silence. She pushed it all away and focused on finding that little bit of Tollin that was always there. That warm, comfortable ember that was nestled in her head. It was there. There still and it flared with welcome as she focused on it. She concentrated all she had on it. It continued to grow, lighter and brighter and alive and then as she opened her eyes, suddenly, it was there, shining before her. The Light.