We finished our ice cream and talked about things other than Heather’s job. Alec escorted her to her car while we waited just outside the door.
As we walked toward our portalling spot, Johnathan leaned down between us. “It seems as if we may need to find a way for some of us to meet up with Carl and Tiffany.”
Alec and I nodded.
o, you think the hospital has more of them? More monsters?” Seth tried to open the container of muffins he’d bought while out with Joe and Halli. He struggled much harder than he should have had to for a plastic container that snapped together.
The crackling of the plastic disrupted my thoughts. “Umm… yeah, I’m almost sure of it. The way she picked out that Ghoul, the little bit of history she told us. Yeah, I’m sure. If she freaks out about someone… they aren’t a person.
“Why are you having such a hard time with that thing, Seth? Seriously.”
“I don’t know, it’s stuck or something.” He let out a frustrated growl and slammed the container down on the bed. “Hal, hand me my backpack, will ya?”
She threw it to him. I glanced at her new shadow. The Imp, Surpy, was glued to her side. And, he was turning red, watching Seth’s difficulties. Tears were pooling in his enormous eyes and his lips were stretched tightly closed as little sounds of grunting laughter escaped now and then.
I scrunched my eyebrows together and looked back at Seth. He’d removed his pocket knife from the backpack and sliced the obstinate container open. I turned my attention back to Surpy. No longer able to hold it in, he burst out in Impish laughter. The tears that had pooled in his eyes, now released to trail down his unattractive face.
“What’s so funny, Imp?” Seth took a huge bite of one of the illusive muffins as he glared daggers at the laughing Imp.
Surpy moved closer to Halli. “Nothing, Seff.” His face turned red again as he tried to stop the peals of laughter. His control lasted only a second before he grabbed his stomach and rolled on the floor, laughing louder than he had before.
Joe eyed the annoying creature. “I believe you’ve been pranked, Seth. Imps are famous little pranksters.”
The room was silent for a few heartbeats as Surpy looked up at Seth with wide eyes. The silence was broken by Alec’s laughter. Then we all joined in. Except Seth. He glared at the Imp before lifting the container to his face for a closer inspection.
“It looks like it was glued with something,” Seth looked over at Surpy, who slinked back to hide behind Halli’s legs. “What did you do to it?”
“Nothin’, Seff.”
Halli stooped down closer to him. “Surpy, we all know that’s a lie. You need to tell the truth if you’re going to stay with me.”
He looked at Halli with adoring eyes. “Okay, m’Halli. I stuck it shut.”
“With what?” Seth said. “Did you get into one of our backpacks, you little jerk?”
“No, no way. I promise! I have mine own stuffs. See?” He held up a small pouch that hung from the leather strap at his waist. “See? Mine own super sticky stuffs. In here.” He shook the pouch.
“This better be the last prank you pull on me, Imp.” Seth shoved the rest of the muffin in his mouth and gulped it down without even chewing.
From the mischievous half grin that broke out on his face, I doubted very much that Surpy planned on leaving Seth alone.
Still smiling and shaking my head, I looked at Johnathan. My smile faded at the frown on his face. “Johnathan. What is it?”
He looked down at his hands. “I’m not sure… I just have a strong feeling we should go back to Moab sooner rather than later. Like, tonight.”
Alec whipped his head up. “No, Johnathan. Not yet. I want to see my mom one more time before we go back. Plus, wasn’t it you that said we should do something about the janitor and social worker imposters?”
Johnathan’s forehead creased. “Yeah… yeah, I did. Maybe we should do something about it tonight…”
“Yes!” Seth pumped a fist in the air. “A covert operation.”
“I don’t know,” Alec said. “It isn’t easy to get in that place. I really don’t think they’d let all of us in during visiting hours, I know they won’t this late at night.”
“Duh, Alec.” Seth rolled his eyes. “Thus the covert part of the operation. We sneak in, get it?”
“I don’t know how we’d do that. The place is pretty much a prison. They have safeguards… I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Alec.” I raised an eyebrow. “We could do it, you know, sneak in. I doubt any of the patients are in that common room this time of night. They have strict rules for bedtime and stuff.”
“What exactly are you suggesting?” Johnathan asked.
I swallowed. “Well, we could portal in there. I could take Halli with me. Alec’s strong enough to portal you and Seth at the same time.”
“And me, I can go with m’Halli.” Surpy ducked back behind Halli’s legs as a muffin went flying at his head.
“And then what? How do we know the two we’re after will even be there?” Alec looked back and forth between Johnathan and me.
“They’re of the Fae, Alec. They do their best work at night. Plus, your girlfriend said she sees them when she’s leaving work. Her shift doesn’t end until 9:00 at night.”
Alec frowned and ran his hands through his hair.
“What’re you thinking Alec?” Johnathan asked.
He looked up. “I don’t want my mom to get hurt or become scared of me.”
I walked over and sat next to him on the bed. “Alec, she’ll be asleep and locked in her room. You know they feed her all kinds of medication at night to keep her calm. I don’t blame you for being worried about her safety, but… she’s in danger right now. She’s in danger as long as those two are near her. She called the social worker a Demon. A Demon, Alec. And, it knows your mom knows.”
Awareness dawned on Alec’s face. “You’re right. She’s already in danger. Okay, so what’s the plan?”
They all turned to look at me, even Johnathan. I looked at Joe, who’d been unusually quiet during this entire conversation—his shrug was a big help. “Well,” I continued, “we’ll have to go in disguise. Like I said, I doubt there’ll be any patients in there, but there probably will be staff.”
“We can use the new spell we just learned. The vanesco spell,” Halli said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I agreed. “Then we’ll just have to split up and look for them. They shouldn’t be too hard to spot. A freakishly tall, ugly guy and a female with curly blonde hair. I’d bet almost anything we’ll be able to pick them out immediately with our sight—we’ll see whatever it is Natalie saw.”
“Oh, yes, yes! An adventure for me!” Surpy clapped his hairy knuckled hands together.
“No,” Seth and I said in unison.
“It would be better if you stay here with Joe, Surpy,” I said. “I don’t think I can portal both you and Halli anyway.”
His face fell. Eyes downcast, he looked at his big feet, sniffed and muttered, “I wanna come with m’Halli.”
“Well, too bad,” Seth spat. “You aren’t coming.”
“When should we leave?” Alec asked.
The clock on Joe’s nightstand read 11:00. “There’s no time like the present.” I stood and grabbed my jacket.
“Aww, presents? There’s gonna be presents? I miss all the fun.” I wouldn’t have thought it possible if I hadn’t witnessed it, but Surpy’s sad face turned even sadder. His bottom lip protruded like a spoiled toddler’s.
“No, dummy,” Seth said. “Present as in now, this moment. Not present like a gift. Duh.”
The Imp stuck his blue-hued tongue out at Seth before ducking behind Halli’s legs again.
“Okay, everyone, get your stuff. We’ll form the invisibility spell here and then portal.” I looked at Joe. “We’ll plan on portalling back to mine and Halli’s room, so we don’t accidentally land on you or Surpy.”
The boys star
ted gathering their gear belts and jackets while Halli and I returned to our room to get hers.
Standing in a group, Halli and I held hands, the three boys linked arms and we each invoked the vanesco spell.
Surpy’s gasp told me it had worked. “M’Halli?” he whispered.
“Joe. Can you see any of us?” Johnathan’s disembodied voice spoke.
“Nope. Good job, kids. Just don’t move too quickly and the humans won’t even know you’re there. The Fae are another story. They’ll likely be able to see right through the spell, so don’t count on going unnoticed by them.”
“Okay, guys. When we get there, remember to open your sight immediately so we know what things might be lurking. Everyone ready?” I tightened my grip on Halli’s hand.
There was a group “yes” in answer.
“On three then. One. Two. Three.”
The now familiar pressure and darkness swept over me as I held tight to Halli’s hand. I’d only portalled a few times since gaining my sight back, and it still made my heart leap into my throat—the darkness terrified me. This was also the first time I’d tried taking someone with me when portalling, and, even though Halli lent some of her strength to the spell, it took longer than usual. Just as I started to worry we were stuck in-between, our feet hit the floor of the common room in the forensic unit of the hospital.
I released Halli’s hand and looked around to get my bearings. I didn’t see anyone nearby, so I chanced a whisper. “Guys? Alec? Where are you?”
A whispered reply came from right next to me. “Right here. Glad you made it slowpoke.” Alec was such a talent snob.
“Everyone open your sight,” Johnathan reminded us.
I was somewhat surprised to find I could see the faint outlines of my friends with my sight open. I supposed that was what the Fae would be able to see of us, too. It did make things easier to be able to tell where the others were.
A quick look around told me there was no one near us. The only other person I saw was a night nurse sitting at the enclosed nurse’s station flipping through a magazine, his feet up on the desk.
“Halli and I will go patrol near the patient rooms—”
“I’ll go with you two,” Johnathan butted in.
I smiled an invisible smile. “Good idea. Seth and Alec, you check the other wing. Heather said they moved Carl to the medium security wing, but in this same building.”
“Didn’t they move Tiffany to another building? How are we going to find her?” Alec asked.
I shrugged before remembering they could only see a faint outline of me. “I don’t know. If we don’t see her here, we’ll have to figure out a way to get into the other buildings.”
“Let’s get this over with, then,” Alec whispered.
One more glance at the nurse’s station showed that the nurse hadn’t moved. Johnathan stepped up beside me and grabbed my hand. I guided him and Halli to the hallway that led to the patient rooms. Alec and Seth took off in the opposite direction.
We didn’t get far. A locked gate blocked our way just a few steps into the hallway. It was one of those collapsible metal gates and it went from floor to ceiling. The lock wasn’t one I could magically unlock. A badge was needed to open it.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Can’t we just portal to the other side?” Halli asked. “We can see it, we’ll just picture being on the other side of the gate.”
“You’re a genius, Hal.” Johnathan said. “I’ll go first.”
One second he was standing there holding my hand, and the next he’d let go and was on the other side of the locked gate.
“Me next,” Halli whispered.
The outline of her mostly invisible body appeared next to Johnathan’s. It was the fastest I’d seen either of them portal. It seemed that being that close to the destination speeded things up a bit.
It took me mere seconds to portal to the other side. I was getting better—finally. Johnathan found my invisible hand with his and we started down the hallway. The doors to the rooms were solid except for a small window about five feet up.
The lights were off in all the rooms we passed. Another hallway intercepted the one we travelled down. Just sticking out into the intersection, I saw a pair of black boots. As I stepped closer, I saw those boots were connected to a pair of legs wearing navy blue pants. I pulled on Johnathan’s hand as I turned toward the darkened hallway where we found a security guard sprawled out—unconscious but breathing.
“There’s another one over here,” Halli whispered.
“Let’s each take a hallway and then meet back here.” Johnathan gave my hand a squeeze before releasing it.
Even though I’d been thinking the same thing, I was a little surprised at his suggestion. He was usually super protective of me and Halli. Maybe he was finally starting to realize we could hold our own with the bad guys.
He touched my arm as I took a step toward the hallway to my left. “Don’t confront anything you find. Use your necklaces to summon the rest of us to help.”
Halli and I both agreed we would.
The necklace lay heavy against my chest. I felt Johnathan watching my blurred outline as I started down the hallway. I’d taken several steps before I heard him continue down the way we’d already been heading. I smiled to myself. I was so glad things finally felt right with us again. His overprotectiveness was like being wrapped in my favorite old quilt on a cold evening.
The warmth of my thoughts turned to focused concentration as I sensed something wrong somewhere ahead of me. I stopped and pushed myself up against the wall to study the hallway before me, trying to decide what had set off my senses so strongly. My heart quickened as I realized a light glowed through one of the doors at the end of the hallway. That, in and of itself, wasn’t too alarming—maybe the patient in that room suffered from insomnia or something. But, the door was ajar. Light spilled from the cracked door out into the dark hallway. I wasn’t sure, not having ever been in a high security forensic psych hospital at night before, but, my guess was that this was out of the ordinary.
I decided to wait before summoning the others. I wanted to investigate first, to make sure it was worth pulling them from their own searches. I moved slowly toward the open door. I almost laughed out loud as a picture flashed in my mind of the Scooby Doo gang tip-toeing down a dark, deserted hallway, arms bent at ninety degree angles in front of them, palms toward the floor. Their exaggerated movements as their knees came up to nearly meet their chests. I shook my head to clear it of the sudden blast from childhood.
I slowed even more as I came within ten feet of the door in question. I stopped and pressed up against the wall on the same side as the door when I was only a few feet away.
“Wake her up,” a too sweet female voice breathed. “I need to see her terror. I feed off of it. Besides, it makes it oh so much more fun. Especially with this one.”
A deep, gravelly voice grunted in reply.
Those words were enough cause to summon the others. I touched the enchanted chain around my neck and invoked the charm that would let them know I needed them as well as lead them to my location. Torn between waiting for backup or intervening immediately on behalf of the sleeping victim, a terrified scream pierced the air and made up my mind for me.
I was at the door in an instant. I threw it open and crouched just outside the room, sweeping my eyes from one corner to the next. What I saw made my anger flare. Behind that anger was fear. Intense, heart-stopping, fear.
ucky for me, I’m a bit of a hot-head. My anger refused to let the terror take over. Standing over the bed was a huge, grotesque, humanoid creature. It had a wild main of hair that stuck out everywhere. Springing forth from its shoulder blades were two black, bat-like wings. Bloodshot eyes turned toward the doorway where I crouched. I was unable to suppress a shiver as a drop of saliva trailed down one enormous fang and dropped to the ground. Where there should have been a nose, there were only two nostrils about the size of nickels. These flared
in and out as it caught my scent. One clawed hand was wrapped around its victim’s wrist. Blood dripped from between its fingers.
The woman screamed again and I looked at her face. My heart dropped when I recognized Natalie—Alec’s mom. A shriek of rage escaped my throat as I shot a bolt of blue lightning straight at the creature’s chest. I ducked and rolled back into the hallway as my spell bounced off and ricocheted back toward me, slamming through the opposite wall. I didn’t have time to wonder what had happened. The creature’s companion laughed. A beautiful, operatic sound.
My roll ended with a smooth and fast transition to my feet as I pushed myself up against the wall again. Still laughing, the female appeared in the hallway. I got my first good look at her there. Her platinum blonde hair glowed as it fell around her shoulders in waves. Her face was a portrait of horrible beauty. Blood red lips parted into a smile that showed shiny silver teeth—all sharpened to razor sharp points. The top half of her body was all big busted human, barely covered in a flowing gown made of sheer material. I forgot to breathe as my gaze shifted to the bottom half of her body. She didn’t walk out of Natalie’s room. She slithered. Not snake-like. She was a snake from the waist down. The scales reflected the light from the room, casting a kaleidoscope of colors on the walls, floor, and ceiling of the hallway.
The invisibility spell was useless—she looked straight at me—so I released the spell.
“Oh, little witch girl. Poor little witch girl who presumes to take on a Greater Demon all by herself.” The Demon purred. She waved her perfectly manicured hands in front of her in an intricate pattern as she slithered closer to me. I watched her hands and realized too late what she was doing.
My eyes were glued to those hand movements. My mind freaked out, telling my body to move, but my body rebelled against me and stayed still.
“A magical girl is a much better catch than the one we were after. Aswang, leave the seer and come taste our new prey. Her blood shall give us much strength. You may feed on her body after I feed on her soul.”
I heard her words. I understood them. Yet, still my body betrayed me. My heart raced. I could feel each quick beat in my head. My fear told my heart I should be running or fighting, so it responded in kind. The pressure built until I thought my chest would explode.
Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2) Page 20