Raven (The Storm Chronicles Book 5)

by Skye Knizley

  “Maybe I just like your company,” Aspen said.

  “You haven’t known me long enough to know that,” Bobbi said. “But I’m a decent cop and your Agent Storm trusts me, so you know enough to feel you can talk to me.”

  Aspen chuckled and looked out the window. “When you say it like that, it sounds even weirder.”

  “Nah, my cap says I just have that kind of personality,” Bobbi said. “It’s why victims talk to me. So give, what’s the deal?”

  Aspen took a deep breath and got as far as “I—” before she was cut off by the police band. Bobbi held up a hand and turned up the radio. It was a robbery in progress not far from where they were.

  “Feel like a ride along?” she asked.

  Aspen looked back out the window. She’d promised to meet Raven back at the hotel and she didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, but right now what she really needed was some excitement.

  “Sure, let’s go catch the bad guys.”

  Bobbi grinned, hit the siren and called it in.

  OLD HIGHWAY 20

  SOMEWHERE, MA. 5:36 A.M.

  RAVEN GUIDED THE RAPIDE DOWN a twisty section of old Route 20 in the middle of nowhere. King hadn’t been able to make contact with his team, but the GPS signal was still strong. He’d sent Raven the coordinates and she’d kept the pedal to the floor ever since.

  The Rapide squealed around another corner in a cloud of smoke and rubber and spotted the van on its side at the bottom of the next hill. She slowed and turned the Rapide’s bright lights on. The van was still, with steam or smoke rising from its grill. The passenger side door was hanging askew and the side of the vehicle was bowed outward along its entire length, with a hole in the middle the size of a grapefruit.

  Raven parked the Rapide next to the van and climbed out, her pistol held in front of her in a Weaver stance with her finger on the trigger. There was no sign of movement. She took a moment to get her new sword from the Rapide’s trunk then crossed in front of the van. The windshield was shattered and the driver was planted against it like a large and very juicy bug. The smell of blood and death was almost overwhelming.

  She moved down the side to the rear door and found them pushed outward and hanging loosely from their hinges like broken arms. Blood covered the windows and the wall, and Raven’s heart sank. She could smell Levac’s cheeseburger cholesterol-laden blood mixed in with the unfortunate corpse planted in what had once been the passenger side wall.

  Rupe, where are you? she sent.

  There was no answer and no feeling that he was alive. But she could smell his blood along with the sickly sweet scent she’d learned to associate with the snake-things. It led down the street a short way then off into the woods on the side of the road. She looked at the stygian darkness of the woods and focused her vampire sight. The night became bright with the heat and warmth of the nighttime creatures and she could see drops of Levac’s blood standing out like tiny red beacons. From the amount he was losing, she didn’t have much time. She stepped over the curb and into the darkness, her senses strained as much as she dared.

  The trail led through the darkness and into a valley that Raven sensed was older than most of the surrounding structures. Even the trees felt old.

  The smell of blood was getting stronger and she followed it toward an old farmhouse with lights glowing in the predawn gloom. The house was in good condition, though it showed its age. It had been painted white within the last few years, the porch and rails were all in good condition and smoke was drooling from the single chimney in the middle of the house. Raven crept toward the house and covered her nose. The smell of blood was almost overpowering.

  She peeked through the window and found out why. An older woman and two teenaged boys lay on the floor, their throats cut and their life-blood spilled all over the room. By the smell, it hadn’t been that long ago.

  Raven hurried to the front door and kicked it in. The old wood shattered on impact with the wall and she stepped through, her pistol sweeping the room. Levac was slumped on the floor, halfway up on a sofa. He had his pistol pointed at her in two very shaky hands.

  “Hey Ray,” he said. “What took you so long?”

  Raven holstered her pistol and crouched beside him. “Oh, you know, I stopped to have an argument, order a pizza and generally have a good time.”

  Levac coughed blood that drooled down his chin. “I hope you brought the pizza, I’m starved.”

  “Not this time, partner,” Raven said. “You need something with a little more oomph.”

  She helped him into the chair and looked at the wound in his side. She could see the white of ribs through the tear in his skin.

  “Rupe, why the hell didn’t you stay with the van?” she asked.

  “Would you have?” Levac asked.

  Raven looked at him.

  “That’s why I didn’t. And I have a much greater appreciation for the stupid things you do,” he said. “I don’t think I grow things back like you, though.”

  “You will, just don’t move.”

  Levac frowned. “Blood again? Come on, can’t I just have a burrito?”

  Raven bit her wrist and held it out. “No. I told you, you need more oomph.”

  Levac took the offered wrist in his mouth with a mixture of reluctance and disgust.

  “Touching. The Guardian said you would come back,” a voice said.

  Raven turned to see Caleb Walker standing in the doorway, an obsidian blade held in his hand.

  “You were warned to leave us alone,” he hissed. “This did not concern you.”

  Raven didn’t move. She kept her eyes on Levac, who was moving almost imperceptibly.

  “It does now,” Raven said. “Whatever you are, you’ve killed innocent people. Even the body you wear was innocent, once.”

  The thing that had been Walker laughed. “Hardly that. He willingly participated in the sacrifice of a young woman to save his own skin.”

  “And he spent the rest of his life paying penance,” Raven said. “He didn’t deserve to die.”

  “That was not your choice to make. The Guardian chooses,” Walker said.

  Levac was still moving his hand. Raven watched his fingers close around his Sig and she nodded.

  “What is the Guardian, anyway?” Raven asked. “Whatever came out of that tomb with Klien?”

  “Dr. Klien is the Guardian, they are one,” Walker said. “Now you will become one with us, as well.”

  Walker raised his sword. Levac winked at Raven and she rolled out of the way. The room was filled with the thud of 10mm slugs hitting home and a scream of agony from Quinn, who staggered backwards into the wall.

  Raven was up and moving before his cries died. Her sword sang from its scabbard and she swung in one smooth movement that took Walker’s head off and sent it spiraling into the wall where it left a trail of white venom and thick half-congealed blood that trailed down to the floor. As the head fell, it shifted from Walker’s rather congenial features to an almost featureless snake head that more resembled a skull than a face.

  “I think that might have actually killed him,” Raven said.

  Levac wiped blood from his mouth and stood. “You think? Look at the sword.”

  Raven blinked in surprise. The sigils etched into the sword were glowing with a blue inner fire that crackled along the length of the blade. She could almost hear Aspen, “Shiny! You got a lightsaber!”

  “Thad, I think you have some ‘splaining to do,” Raven muttered.

  “You can interrogate him later,” Levac said. “We need to find the rest of these things and finish this.”

  “The rest? What do you mean?” Raven asked.

  “Walker didn’t free himself,” Levac said. “Quinn and Butler were masquerading as two of King’s men. They shifted as soon as they sensed something they called ‘sacred land’ and attacked. They left me for dead in the middle of the road and headed this way.”

  Raven pulled Levac’s hand from the wound in his side.
The skin was growing back, but she could still see the bones.

  “You aren’t going anywhere,” Raven said. “You’re going to call this in and keep healing. I’ll go after them.”

  “I should go with you, someone has to watch your back,” Levac said. “I’m fine.”

  Raven poked him just below the ribs and he howled in pain.

  “You are not fine,” Raven said. “You’re hurt and I might have to move fast. Call King and the local PD, and stay here.”

  Levac sat down, his hand clasped to his side. “Great. I get to stay here and babysit the corpses.”

  “We all have our crosses to bear. Hold the fort, I’ll be back.”

  “You better, or Aspen will kill me,” Levac replied.

  Raven smiled. “Can’t have that. Feel better.”

  Outside, Raven walked around the house looking for any signs of where the others had gone. She picked up their scent on a dirt trail that led back into the woods.

  The things I do to catch the bad guys. Someday this shit is going to bite me in the ass.

  She paused at the edge of the noisome wood and reached into her pocket where she’d put Aspen’s ring. She pulled it out and looked at it. The stone glittered with inner fire in the predawn light and she slipped it on her finger.

  Whatever happens, you’ll know how I felt, she thought.

  She drew her pistol and followed the trail back into the gloom.

  The sun was a light glow on the horizon when the trail ended at a cemetery set in a clearing behind a long-forgotten church. The miasma of death and age hung over the graves like a cloud, but it was nothing when compared to the smell of snake. Raven was really beginning to hate that smell.

  She leapt the rusting iron fence and moved through the crypts and graves like a ghost, the Automag held in front of her, a beacon of silver in the shadows. She could hear noises coming from somewhere ahead and she edged around one of the larger crypts to see six snakelike men unloading a crate from a trailer attached to the back of a Yamaha all-terrain vehicle. When they opened it, Raven could smell old blood and a tangy scent she didn’t recognize.

  The snake-men carried the stone chest that had been inside the crate to a tomb in the middle of the cemetery. Someone she assumed was Klien stepped out of the crypt wearing a skull mask decorated with human skin, leather strips and black feathers. The pieces of skin were each marked with the skull symbol, indicating they were the pieces cut from the victims.

  That explains that, Raven thought. Talk about creepy.

  She stepped out from behind the tomb she was using for cover and held up her badge.

  “Excuse me, gentlemen,” she said. “You’re under arrest for murder, theft, vandalism and, assuming we can find out who owns this place, trespassing. Lay down the swords and put your hands on your heads.”

  The snake men turned to look at her and morphed into their human appearance. Raven recognized all of the victims from the list as well as one or two she hadn’t been aware of, but were on the class photo Kole had been studying. Klien stepped forward, but the voice that came from him was not his own.

  “Agent Storm. You were warned, yet you persist,” he said. “You have damaged one of my warriors and entered holy ground without the permission of Yum Cimil. You will be sacrificed to atone for your sins.”

  “What happened to Ixtab?” Raven asked.

  “Ixtab? The Goddess has no place, here, unless you choose to take your own life and beg Yum Cimil for forgiveness,” Klien said. “I doubt he will listen to one such as you but you are welcome to try.”

  “I don’t think suicide is on my to-do list for the day,” Raven said. “All I have is ‘kill a bunch of scumbags, save the day, patch up things with my girlfriend,’ normal stuff like that.”

  “Kill her,” Klien rasped. “Bring her still-beating heart to me.”

  The snake men charged as one, swords raised over their heads. Raven aimed the Automag and shot each of them in the head, watching them fall like dominoes beyond the gun’s glowing red-dot sight. When the last one fell she put a round through the middle of Klien’s mask and watched him drop like his strings had been cut.

  “That wasn’t so hard,” she said. “Are you guys easier to kill in the daylight or something?”

  She reloaded and started toward them, her weapon aimed at the closest one, who happened to look a little like Father Casside. Without warning he started to move again, his eyes locking on hers, his weapon gripped tight.

  “I guess not,” Raven said.

  She shot him again, putting two in his chest and another in the middle of his throat. She then backed away as the others started to rise. She emptied the Automag into the closest ones and drew her sword. The silver blade gleamed in the rising sun and she waited, sword at the ready.

  CRANSTON FARMHOUSE

  SOMEWHERE, MA. 6:13 A.M.

  LEVAC STOOD BY THE FARMHOUSE’S window, eyes locked on the dirt road that, he assumed, led to the main road. The wound in his side was healing, slowly but surely and he was feeling stronger every minute. Now if he could just cope with the fact there was a dead family in the next room, a family he hadn’t been able to protect. Getting over that wound was going to be a bit harder.

  He heard a sound like a cue ball rolling across a pool table and he turned to see Walker’s head reconnecting with his neck.

  “What the hell?”

  He drew his Sig and started shooting, emptying half a clip into him before he again stopped moving.

  I guess even Raven’s new toy couldn’t do the job, so what now? he wondered.

  He moved toward the kitchen and started rummaging through drawers looking for anything big enough to start hacking away at Walker with. He selected a large kitchen cleaver and moved back toward the living room. When he entered he saw a group of police cars outside and Walker trying to rise, the holes in his chest already healed.

  “Stay dead, dammit!” Levac yelled.

  He removed Walker’s head with the cleaver just as the first two officers stepped through the door, Glock 19’s held at the ready.

  “Freeze” they yelled in unison.

  Levac sat back and raised his hands. “Agent Levac, FBI. Don’t tell me, tell him. He’ll be back up in a few minutes.”

  “Agent Levac, where is Ravenel?” King asked.

  “I don’t know, she went after the others,” Levac replied. “They’re all here, out there in the woods.”

  King’s face hardened and he dashed for the back door with speed that belied his advanced age. He yanked it open, but all Levac could see through the gap was trees.

  “And we have no idea how to stop them,” he finished.

  LOST CEMETERY

  SOMEWHERE, MA. 6:45 A.M.

  RAVEN YANKED HER BLADE OUT of Casside’s chest for what felt like the hundredth time and turned to see what was left of Father Butler bringing his sword down toward her head. She blocked with her own blade and kicked him in the stomach, sending him backwards. But she wasn’t fast enough to block Quinn, whose blade opened a gash in her back from one side to the other. Raven swallowed her cry of pain and back-flipped onto the top of an oblong tomb behind her. One of the others, someone she didn’t recognize, grabbed her ankle and she fell hard, a scream fighting its way past her lips.

  “Give up, Agent Storm,” Klien said. “Join me.”

  “And what, become a snake-thing with bad breath and a lousy dental plan? I don’t think so,” Raven replied. “You could always lay down your weapons and surrender.”

  “Yum Cimil’s chosen will never yield,” Klien said.

  Raven climbed to one knee. “Don’t say I didn’t offer.”

  Her glittering blade slashed and both creatures dropped, their heads rolling away like scattered toys. Raven then stood and leapt to another tomb, being careful not to slip on the blood running freely down her leg. She was getting tired, and weak from blood loss, and the Guardians showed no signs of stopping no matter what she did. The best she’d been able to manage was slow
ing them down.

  She did a somersault to avoid Butler’s sword and landed back on the blood-slick ground. Butler spun with supernatural speed and his sword sought an opening in her guard. Raven blocked, attacked, blocked and backpedaled until she nearly ran into Quinn, who was just rising from the dead. Again. She drew her pistol and shot him in the face, then rolled away from Quinn. He followed, his dead eyes tracing her every movement.

  “You’re going to die, Agent Storm,” Klien said, putting his head back on. “Yum Cimil will be feasting upon your soul by daybreak.”

  “That’s gross,” Raven said. “You should never have a soul for breakfast, didn’t your momma teach you anything?”

  She kicked Quinn in the crotch and rammed her sword through the back of his neck when he doubled over. She then kicked his body away, stabbed one of the creatures at her feet that was starting to come back, and again retreated, this time to the top of a mausoleum half sunk into the ground. She needed room, time to rest and time to think.

  Thunder rolled in the distance as she knelt on the ages-old stone and a cold rain began to fall. She wiped her mouth on the back of a bloody hand and knelt in the rain, letting it rinse her many cuts. It would help her heal faster, for what that was worth. Without a serious blood transfusion she was going to die, sooner rather than later.

  Below her, Klien stroked his mask, which miraculously hadn’t shattered when she’d put a bullet through it some minutes before. When he did, all of his minions rose, congealed blood pouring from their wounds.

  Raven smiled. Maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel after all.

  She stood and looked down at Klien, her sword held ready, her Automag in her hand.

  “Ready for the next round?” she asked.

  “I’m coming for you,” Klien snarled. “I’m going to—”

  “Eat my soul, blah blah blah,” Raven said. “I heard you the first fifty times and I’m still waiting. Are we going to fight or talk?”

  Klien’s eyes flared behind his mask and the others charged, almost standing on each other to be the first to the top. Raven shot them all in succession then leapt toward Klien. Her sword connected with his mask and cut it from top to bottom with a sound like a saw blade through cheap pine. It fell away to reveal Klien’s snake-like face and the cut that went down the middle. He’d narrowly avoided being split in half as well. He screamed in anger and the snake-men, all victims of his power, dropped to the ground and dissolved, leaving nothing behind but a stinking puddle of goo.