Witching Moon

by Yasmine Galenorn

  Viktor glanced around, swinging his flashlight from side to side. “I assume you checked behind the counter?”

  “Yeah. There wasn’t much there. I was upstairs on…” Good grief, I couldn’t remember which floor I had been on when I saw the clown in the window. “I don’t know what floor it was. But I was upstairs when I saw the Lykren’s image.”

  “Okay, but we need to head down to the basement to find its lair. My guess is that it just projects itself from there.” Ember paused. “Crap. Yutani was going to try to get the blueprints, but I forgot to ask about it. All right, we do this the hard way. Where would the basement be?” She began flashing her light on the doors. Some of the signs were still attached.

  We passed the exam rooms, and then the staircase leading up. Once we reached the end of the corridor, we turned to the left.

  The spirits of the veterans suffering from various PTSD flocked through the halls, crowding in along with the ghosts of some of the people they had killed in battle, all wound together in a tangle of karmic connections. I watched their expressions—they all looked adrift and lost.

  Trinity broke away from us, skirting ahead along the inner wall as he examined the doors. I wanted to call him back, but I realized that he wouldn’t listen to me. I could see Viktor tensing up ahead of me and I heard him mumble something under his breath. A moment later Trinity turned around, pointing to the door that he was standing in front of.

  “Basement,” he said in a soft voice that carried down the hall toward us. I realized that he had modulated it, focusing it so that only we would hear it. Or at least, I hoped only we would hear it. We hurried over to him, and as we approached, he tried the knob, jiggling it. He paused, looking up as the door cracked just the faintest distance.

  “Unlocked,” he said. He let go of the knob and stood back, returning to his place in line in back of Viktor. Viktor glanced over his shoulder, giving Trinity a grumpy look.

  “Please don’t break off on your own unless we’re in combat. You could get us all killed, either by us trying to find you, or by you leading something back to us. Whatever the case, talk to us before you decide to meander off on your own.”

  Trinity stared up at him, eyeing the half-ogre with an unreadable look. But all he said was, “Sure thing. This is your rodeo.”

  I hoped he meant it. Trinity was unpredictable and chaotic as hell, and now I knew why, but I couldn’t very well explain the reason to the others, especially in front of him.

  Without another word, Viktor turned back to the door and opened it, shining his light down the steps. They were concrete and steep, and they bent to the left at the end of the staircase.

  With a deep breath, Viktor glanced back. “Ready?”

  We were, and so he turned back to the stairs and we began to descend.

  The basement was gloomy, given there were no windows to the outer world and the only lights we had were our flashlights. Their beams offered scant comfort, and somehow the shadows cast as we descended the stairs seemed more threatening than the darkness itself. A little voice inside urged me to cast a fire spell, to set some piece of wood blazing as a torch, but I knew that would be a faint comfort, no real protection, and it would use up my spell energy.

  Viktor reached the landing and held up his hand, motioning for the rest of us to wait where we were. He peeked around the corner to check out what we were getting ourselves into. Seconds later, he popped his head back and looked up the stairs at the rest of us.

  “Another stairwell going down, with a sign that says the basement is down there. But there’s a door to the side of the landing, leading to what looks like an underground level of the complex. I didn’t know there were any extra floors down here, except the basement.”

  “Me either,” I said. “Where should we look?”

  “I think the Lykren would have its lair in the basement,” Ember said. “If it’s coming up from underground, it had to burrow in somewhere and that’s the most likely place. Viktor, is the door locked?”

  He disappeared for a moment, then reappeared. “No, it’s unlocked. I had a quick peek inside and it looks like there are a lot of records there. Metal shelving with stacks of boxes on them, and filing cabinets lining at least one of the walls. You’d think they would have taken the records with them, or destroyed them.”

  “Maybe they were shut down so abruptly that they didn’t have time. I imagine the government would have wanted to keep the records for evidence, but then again—if the files are still here, either they were returned or never confiscated. Whatever the case, I vote that we head toward the basement proper,” Ember said.

  Viktor motioned for us to follow him. “I think you’re right. Let’s go.”

  We followed him around the bend in the stairs, and I glanced at the door on the landing as we passed by. It was impossible to tell where all the ominous energy was emanating from. It seemed to surround the entire complex. It seeped into everything—every wall, every door, every square inch seemed rife with a feeling of doom.

  There was a metal door at the bottom of the basement. Ember, Trinity, and I waited a few stairs up in case Viktor had to turn and run when he opened it. He cautiously held up his flashlight, giving us a questioning look.

  “While I’d love to be able to turn it off and catch whoever is in there unawares, no way in hell should we go in blind. We’d be sitting ducks.” I shook my head. “Keep that light on.”

  Ember and Trinity murmured their agreement, so Viktor prepared to open the door. He held the light directly in front of him, in hopes of startling anybody who might be on the opposite side. We had to take any advantage we could get.

  The Lykren was susceptible to fire damage, so I summoned up fire into my fingers, focusing on the element rising within me. I didn’t want to cast the spell too soon or it might fizzle out, but if I cast it too late, the Lykren would have a chance to attack. Magic was a tricky business, and required a steady hand and even steadier nerves.

  After a moment, Viktor put his hand on the knob, and started to tug open the door.

  It was locked.

  “Damn it,” Viktor said, glancing back over his shoulder at Trinity. “Can you open this?”

  Trinity headed down the stairs, motioning for Viktor to move out of the way. As the half-ogre shifted places, Trinity put his hand on the doorknob and whispered his incantation again. There was a soft click as the door unlocked. He turned the handle, motioning for Viktor to take over. Viktor grabbed the knob before it could lock again, and—as Trinity backed up—Viktor quickly opened the door and shone the light directly in front of him.

  I squinted trying to see what was in there, but all I could see was a large cavernous room, filled with furniture and bric-a-brac. There were trunks and boxes that looked so old that their hinges had rusted shut, and spiderwebs and cobwebs draped from shelf to trunk to box, cloaking the room like a veil of tattered lace. I shivered. Even though I wasn’t all that afraid of spiders, the thought of walking through the sticky webs gave me the creeps.

  With a deep breath, Viktor headed in, pulling out his sword to cut away the cobwebs. I followed behind Trinity, and Ember behind me. As the door shut behind Ember, we heard it click again. Great, we were locked in.

  I was trying to gauge our surroundings, to make sense of where we were, but there was so much junk that it was hard to tell. I couldn’t see most of the walls; there were bureaus and rusty metal cabinets and stacks of boxes everywhere, cluttering the room. Shivering, I moved over to Trinity’s side and was surprised to see that Ember had followed me.

  “I guess we just start skirting the room. Keep your eyes open for any tunnels breaking through the walls, or even up from the floor. We don’t know where the Lykren broke in from.” Viktor let out a sigh, looking frustrated.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked, although I suspected I already knew the answer.

  “No, but I just had a thought. What if its lair is in another building? What if it made a tunnel over here? I just feel
like we’re working with a jigsaw puzzle,” Viktor said.

  “There’s no help for that,” Ember said. “So keep looking. And shout if anything happens. Viktor, you examine the south wall, Raven, you take the east wall, Trinity—why don’t you check the north wall, and I’ll start here.” She divided the room into quadrants.

  As much as I dreaded poking around on my own, I dove into my task. I headed into the labyrinth of castaway goods. There were trunks everywhere and, as I flashed my light on them, I saw that they each had names stenciled on the top. I realized they came from the soldiers, probably the ones who died here. Why they had never been returned to the families, I didn’t know, but maybe they too had been confiscated for evidence and just forgotten about afterward.

  I finally reached the wall and began to trace the length of it. I scanned from floor to ceiling with my flashlight, but by the time I was nearly at the end I had yet to find anything.

  Hand on my hip, I stared at the inner part of the room, which was piled high with debris. The junk pile would be the perfect place to build a lair, I thought. It would be hard to get into, and not visible right off the bat. But then again, the Lykren had had no reason to think anyone would be coming after it. Still, it couldn’t hurt to take a look.

  As I headed toward the biggest pile of junk, Ember let out a scream from the west wall. I froze, unable to move as a wave of energy rippled through the room. Suddenly, everything seemed to loom over me and I cowered, terrified of the dark, terrified of the unknown. I wrapped my arms over my head, whimpering.

  A little voice inside whispered, “It’s the Lykren,” and I tried to push through the fear, but I couldn’t. I was paralyzed. I tried to call out, but once again Ember shrieked, and at that moment I broke free, my mind telling me to run, to get out of the basement. I found myself running toward the stairwell door. As I raced past Trinity, he reached out and grabbed hold of me, pulling me close. He wrapped his arms around me as I struggled, and his voice, soft and persuasive, cut through the haze of fear.

  “Hush, girl. It’s just the fear spell. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly, make sure your wards are up.” His voice was so sensuous that it overrode the cloud of terror.

  All I wanted to do was follow his orders. I did as he asked, forcing myself to stop fighting his hold. I began to breathe deeply, and I was in the middle of clearing my chakras when I realized he had charmed me. That alone was disconcerting, but right now it had been the best thing he could do. I took a slow, deep breath, holding it for a few seconds before I let it go. My fear went with it.

  Viktor let out a shout. “It’s got Ember! Hurry!”

  “You okay?” Trinity asked.

  I nodded, and we raced over to where Viktor stood, just in time to see Ember being dragged into a tunnel. The creature that had hold of her was massive. There was no mistaking it—it was the Lykren, all right.

  “If I cast a fire spell, I’ll hit Ember as well. You’re going to have to fight it.”

  Viktor and Trinity swung into the tunnel, which was well over eight feet tall. I followed behind them, pulling Venom out from her sheath. Hopefully, the Lykren would be vulnerable to poison.

  Up ahead, the tunnel spread wider into a shallow cavern, and we could see the Lykren clearly in the glow of several torches that had been placed in sconces along the tunnel walls. It looked as hideous as the drawing that we had seen. The creature had hold of Ember and she was struggling in its grasp. One of its massive arms was wrapped around her waist as it half-carried, half-dragged her along.

  Trinity pulled out a pair of throwing daggers, and before Viktor or I could say anything, he aimed and tossed. The daggers spun through the air, whirling around and around to plunge into the Lykren’s shoulder. It let out a scream, dropping Ember as it reached back to pull out the blades. Ember scrambled up and away, racing toward us as fast as she could. The Lykren let out a grunt and it was then that I saw a long fissure in the rock wall next to it.

  The fissure was small, barely six inches across, but the Lykren began to morph, squishing together as though it were made of Jell-O. Before we could do anything, it vanished into the crack in the wall and we were standing there alone.

  Chapter Fifteen

  We stared at the crack that the Lykren had managed to squeeze through. There was no way in hell any of us could even begin to try and fit ourselves in there.

  Ember shook her head. “We need to come back when we’re better equipped. I wasn’t expecting this.”

  Relieved to hear her speak, I backed away toward the entrance to the tunnel.

  “Are you okay?” I flashed my light over her, and let out a gasp. There was blood pooling around her ankle, saturating her jeans. “What happened to your leg?”

  Looking confused, Ember looked down at her leg and gasped. “I’m bleeding! I don’t know how that happened!”

  I knelt by her side, wincing as I peeled the leg of her jeans up, while Trinity held the flashlight for me. There was a long gash in her ankle and it was bleeding profusely.

  “We have to bind this up and get you back to the office. You need medical attention,” I said. I turned to Trinity. “Do you have a spare rag or something?”

  He nodded and without a word, he pulled out a clean handkerchief and gave it to me. I was starting to wrap it around her ankle when Viktor shouted, “Look out!”

  The next moment, something grabbed hold of me and tossed me across the room. I landed face-first, skidding along the floor. Dazed, I rolled up, looking back to where I had been kneeling. The Lykren had emerged from the crack, and once again, it had grabbed hold of Ember’s arm, trying to drag her away again. Viktor had hold of her other arm and Trinity had wrapped his arms around her waist. The Lykren was trying to squeeze back through the wall, trying to take Ember with him.

  Holy fuck, it was going to try to squeeze her through that crack. And with its strength, it might succeed in doing so, although it would kill her in the process.

  I dragged myself to my feet, using one of the metal shelving units to brace myself on. I had to stop him, and that meant bringing up fire. That also meant I might catch the rest of them in the process, but Ember was swearing up a blue streak.

  “Let go of me, you mother pus bucket!” She was screaming, and I could tell it wasn’t just anger giving voice to her fury. The Lykren had managed to drag her arm, up to the elbow, into the crack but her elbow proper wouldn’t fit. And that wasn’t a deterrent to the monster, as it kept tugging on her. Ember screamed again, this time in pain.

  I close my eyes. There was only one spell that would work without engulfing Ember and the others. I seldom used it because it was so powerful that it would drain me dry, but it had a focalized target area, and I would be less likely to hurt the others.

  “Everybody, close your eyes!” I shouted. Then, I began the invocation.

  Fire of heaven, I call thee down,

  from top of cloud to kiss the ground.

  Bolts to forks, forks to bolts,

  I summoned thee, a million volts.

  Strike to true, I set the mark,

  jump from heaven, to Lykren arc!

  There was a deep rumble overhead, shaking the building with its force. A dark cloud appeared near the ceiling, swirling in a mass of mist and smoke. I focused on the crack, focused on the vision of the Lykren, focused on the force that was building as I held out my hands toward the fissure. And then, praying that the spell would work right, I called forth the lightning. I drew it down from the heavens through the cloud that had formed, then into my body and sent it out my fingertips.

  The force of it shook me to the core, rattling my teeth in my head, sending every hair attached to my skin into full attention. The lightning bolt ripped out of my hands, aiming toward the crack over Ember’s head. With a hop, skip, and a jump, it leapt from my hand to hit the wall, piercing the crack at least three feet above Ember’s head.

  Thank the gods, it missed Viktor and Trinity as it slammed into the granite, widening the cra
ck, sending a shower of stones and sparks every which way as it exploded. The lightning bolt funneled into the fissure and we heard a loud screech, and then Ember tumbled back, falling on the floor as she knocked into Viktor and Trinity, taking them with her.

  Panting, I started to brace myself against the metal shelf unit, and received a spark so powerful that it set me flying across the room again. I landed near the others. Feeling singed in every part of my body, I sat up, with a ringing in my ears so loud I couldn’t hear anything else. Panting, I turned and crawled over to where Ember lay. There was a nasty wound on her arm, and at first I thought that my lightning had done it. But when I looked, I could see the festering. No, that looked like an acid burn. The Lykren must have drooled on her. Her arm also looked bent in an unnatural way.

  Viktor and Trinity were shaking their heads, and they were staring at both Ember and me, confused looks on their faces.

  “We have to get out of here,” I said, not knowing whether I was shouting or whispering because I could only hear the ringing in my ears. “I’m not sure that thing’s dead. I don’t want it coming back for us.”

  I had exhausted my magical resources for the day, that was for certain. Viktor jumped up, scooping Ember up in his arms. I thought I could hear her scream but I couldn’t tell. Trinity grabbed up a flashlight and leading the way, he headed back toward the door. He yanked it open, holding it for Viktor. I followed, unsteady on my feet, and Trinity closed it behind us. He muttered something under his breath and I realized he was locking the door.

  We stumbled up the staircase, and while I could see spirits all around, they kept their distance, eyeing us warily as we passed by.

  When we reached the ground floor, Trinity led us directly to the nearest exit, and again, using his abilities, unlocked the door and opened it so we could slip out. We forced our way through the foliage back to the secret garden.