by Dannika Dark
“This is a clusterfuck,” he muttered. “Does it look like a trip wire?”
“I don’t know, Shepherd. I’ve never seen a trip wire before.”
“Don’t be a smartass. How high is it?”
“Oh, about to my waist.”
“We’ll crawl.”
Shepherd got down on his hands and knees, putting the blade between his teeth as he flattened himself out and propped himself up on his elbows.
I knelt to do the same thing but suddenly grabbed his belt. “Stop!”
He froze.
When I got a little lower, I saw it. “There’s another one close to the ground. We can’t crawl.”
On his elbows still, he scooted himself backward and stood up. “I’m guessing this isn’t the way he comes in every day. Does it go all the way across the room?”
I leaned back and squinted. “Looks like it.”
“Anything we can stand on to jump over?”
“Nope.”
“Lead me to the wall on the right.”
We walked a short distance and stopped.
“Is the floor clear of debris?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He felt the wall all the way down to the floor. “Anything on the other side… like a pillar?”
“No.”
He continued, his questions rapid-fire. “Any holes in the floor?”
“Exactly what’s your plan?”
“Lead me a foot from the wires.”
I did as he asked, convinced we would be forced to retreat and search for another way inside.
Shepherd locked his fingers together and bent over. “Put your foot in there. I’m going to hoist you over.”
Without questioning his plan, I put my foot in his makeshift stirrup and flattened my hands on his shoulders.
His body tensed. “Are you ready? One… two… Geronimo!”
Shepherd lifted his arms, and I sailed over the wires and slammed against the concrete with a thud.
I wiped the dirt off my face and sat up. “Geronimo? Whatever happened to three?” After giving the room a quick scan, I stood up and rubbed my sore shoulder. “And how the hell are you getting over here?”
Shepherd placed both hands on the wall and then took large strides backward at an angle. “On a wing and a prayer.” He slid his knife across the floor, and it skidded past me.
My eyes widened when he charged toward the wall. Once his hand made contact, his legs rotated as if he were doing a cartwheel. Shepherd spun right over the wire, defying gravity as he hit the ground and rolled to safety.
I stared down at him in disbelief. “You are one crazy-ass Sensor with a death wish.”
Without a word, he found his knife and stood up. We continued at a slower pace so I could focus on possible traps. When we reached the far end, I slowed down.
“Door,” I whispered, wondering what this place had originally been used for.
“How many?”
I examined the long wall in front of us. “Just one.”
He cursed under his breath and moved around me. “How much can you see?”
“Very little. It’s too grainy, and I can only make out shapes.”
Shepherd inspected the door, pushing his fingers beneath the crack at the bottom and feeling all around. “Well, here goes nothing.” With a hard jerk, he shoved the door open and flew back.
We both stood with our backs against the wall, waiting for something to blow up or fire at us.
Nothing.
“What if it’s a room full of spiders?” I said quietly.
“You’re not helping.”
I peered inside and then took his arm. “It’s clear.” The moment I stepped inside, I felt myself falling.
Shepherd caught my arm at the elbow, and I almost slipped through his fingers. With my legs suspended in midair, I stared down and into the abyss. It was a hole in the floor, and God only knows how far it went.
“Pull me up!” I shrieked. “Back away!”
He stumbled backward and dragged me to safety. “What the hell?”
I panted hard, my arms now wrapped around his thigh. “There’s no floor. It’s a big hole.”
“Why don’t you unglue yourself from my crotch and I’ll check it out.”
I crawled to safety and then stood up. Meanwhile, Shepherd lifted a rock and tossed it into the hole. When it never hit the bottom, I shuddered.
He kept tossing pebbles all around until they tapped on the concrete. Finally, he tucked his knife back in its sheath. “Five feet.”
“Don’t bother locking your fingers together. I’m not jumping over that hole. We should head back and follow behind Viktor.”
“Son of a bitch. If the door opened the other way, I’d take it off the hinges and throw it over the hole.”
That was an interesting idea, assuming he had a screwdriver on him.
He tossed more pebbles to the left and right. “Looks like it’s only in front of the doorway.” Shepherd gripped the top of the door with his left hand, held the knob, and then kicked off so it swung inward with him hanging on.
I poked my head through the opening and watched him drop safely to the floor on the far left.
“You’re next,” he said.
“Wait a second. You spend all day doing pull-ups. And besides, I can’t reach the top of the door.”
He stood up and dusted off his pants. “Improvise.”
My jaw set as the door swung toward me. “Improvise, he says. Fall into a bottomless hole that goes straight to hell. It’s probably filled with spiders. Sounds like a plan.”
“Will you quit talking about spiders? You’re going to give me fucking nightmares.”
Tempted to jump to reach the top of the door and hang on, I opted against it. No sense in accidentally falling into a portal to hell. Could I jump the distance? And if so, was the ground on the other side stable? It wasn’t worth the risk.
So, as Shepherd suggested, I improvised. I squatted down and grabbed the doorknob on each side with both hands. Once I had a firm grip, I clamped my thighs shut with the edge of the door between them and kicked off, the door swinging in his direction.
“Catch me!” My eyes widened in horror when Shepherd blindly waved his arms, assuming I was higher up.
“Down here!” I squeaked.
He quickly reached down, hooked his hands beneath my arms, and hauled me to safety.
Instant relief came over me, but it didn’t last long. I stood up and looked around. “Let’s go. I can see something up ahead.”
At the far end of the room, which was similar to the last, was a slice of light that could only be coming from the bottom of a closed door.
An explosion rocked in the distance, shaking the ground beneath our feet. Dirt and small bits from the ceiling sifted down, and I covered my mouth.
Once there was enough light to see, we finally stopped by a spray-painted pillar. “What now?” I asked quietly.
He wiped the sweat from his brow. By the way his eyes shifted around, it looked like he could see a little as well. “Let me take over from here.”
“You can’t go in there alone, and I didn’t come all this way to wait outside.” My breath caught when a shadow moved behind him.
Shepherd didn’t speak. He studied my face and mouthed, “Mage?”
I shook my head. No energy licked against my skin, and I couldn’t even sense the presence of a non-Mage, which left only one possibility.
Vampire.
Maybe Shepherd had deduced the same, because he retrieved an impalement stake from inside his jacket. It had what looked like a metal weight in the center. He gripped his fingers around that metal and held it like a spear. Instead of turning to look, he watched my eyes.
I studied the darkness, making small talk. “Maybe we should knock on the door and see if he answers.”
“Yeah. Sounds like a plan,” Shepherd said flatly, still focused on my eyes.
I caught a shadow to the left and flicked my eyes in that
direction. With lightning speed, Shepherd spun around and threw the stake. It whistled through the air before striking the shadow.
I flashed over and flipped the man onto his back. Even though my fangs had appeared, I was reluctant to bite a Vampire without knowing the effect his blood would have on me. The stake had punctured his chest, and I shoved it in farther for peace of mind. Then I searched his pockets for weapons or…
“Keys,” I whispered.
“Give ’em here.”
Shepherd briefly inspected them before silently approaching the door. He knelt down, peered beneath the crack, and then touched the knob for a moment.
“It’s clear,” he said, testing the key in the locks. “That must be one of his guards. Pussies always hire Vampires to do all their dirty work. I don’t think there’ll be any traps inside unless they’re alarms. Think fast and move fast. Got it?”
As soon as the door opened, fluorescent light pierced my eyes. It looked like a small security room for lazy guards. To the right, a red chair and ottoman. Magazines were scattered all over the floor, and someone had tossed an empty bag of potato chips in the corner.
Shepherd freed two knives from their sheaths and twirled them in his hands. “Get ready to move fast.”
We neared the door directly in front of us. When I turned the handle, we rushed inside a long hallway. Passing a few vacant rooms, I ran as far as it went. Energy spiked against my skin, and I heard the unmistakable sound of swords clashing. The end of the hall diverged, so I followed the sounds and flashed to the right. Having left Shepherd behind, I burst into a dark room lit by computer screens. Niko was in a clinch with a man whose sword was impressively long.
“Other room,” Niko grunted. “I have this.” He shoved the man off-balance before hopping back and putting distance between them.
Disregarding the two men, Shepherd plowed right past me and through an open door on the opposite side of the room. When Niko advanced on his attacker, they engaged in one hell of a swordfight. I wanted to sit and watch, but instead I flashed to the other side to avoid getting sliced in two.
I ended up in a hall and followed the sound of Shepherd’s heavy footfalls going left. The hallways were reminiscent of an ancient prison, complete with decrepit walls, pipes running along them, and dirty floors. The only modern thing was the overhead lights. The temperature was noticeably warmer.
I slowed my pace when a loud commotion sounded from a room Shepherd had entered.
On the floor, Christian was straddling Cristo, his hand firmly wrapped around the Mage’s throat. “Where is the baby?” His eyes never left Cristo’s for a moment.
“Safe,” Cristo replied tersely.
Viktor encroached on them, a streak of blood across his face and his clothes ragged and torn. There weren’t overhead lights in this room, just a pool table and lanterns on the walls.
Shepherd loomed over the man, his knives in hand with the pointy tips tapping impatiently against his thighs.
Blue appeared in the doorway, out of breath. The hood of her cloak had fallen away from her head. “He’s not here. I checked all the rooms.”
I pointed at Cristo.
“No. I meant the baby.”
“Are there any more goons?” I asked.
She shook her head, eyes on Christian. “Niko’s taking care of the only guard we found inside.”
“There might be more outside. We ran into a Vamp.”
She nodded. “Us too. Vampire guards are popular since they’re mostly undetectable. That’s why I brought these.” She opened her cloak. In addition to her tomahawk were two impalement stakes, but all I noticed was the blood dripping down the handle of her axe.
“Where’s the baby?” Christian pressed.
“Safe,” Cristo replied.
“Safe where?”
“Safe.”
Shepherd removed his leather jacket and it dropped to the floor. “Let me ask him. I promise I’ll be nice.”
Niko came up beside Blue, his hair askew and swords back in their scabbards.
“Where the hell is the baby?” Christian growled.
“Safe,” Cristo repeated.
“Why is it not working?” Viktor asked. “Is he a Blocker?”
Blue drifted into the room and stood beside Viktor. “I think he means a safe. Ask him.”
Christian leaned in so tight their noses touched. “Is the baby inside of a safe?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, for feck’s sake, why didn’t you just say so, you poor excuse for a spark plug?”
I turned to Niko. “Can you see the baby’s energy?”
He entered the room and scanned it. “Not behind walls.”
Christian slapped the Mage. “Where’s the safe?”
“Upstairs.”
“What’s the code to open it?”
“Six one six, nine five nine.”
Christian stood up and kicked him hard. “There’s a special jail cell for men like you. One with hungry rats and broken toilets.”
Cristo coughed and rolled to his side. “No jail can hold me.”
Shepherd slowly circled around him and knelt down.
Cristo glared up at him, his nose bloodied. “What the fuck are you looking at?”
Shepherd tapped the tip of his blade against his own chin. “Remember me?”
“I don’t know you.”
“But I know you.” Shepherd held out his arms to show him the scars and then sliced open the front of his shirt, revealing more.
“Is that supposed to mean something?” Cristo, still lying on his side, stared daggers at him.
Shepherd gave him a mirthless smile. “Five years ago, an acquaintance of yours tried to stab me to death while you murdered a woman in her own bed.”
Recognition sparked in Cristo’s eyes. “Oh, yeah. That was back when I ran with a partner. I knew he should have cut off your head.”
“Your buddy cried like a baby when I killed him.”
Cristo rolled onto his back and gave him a crooked smile, blood smeared across his face from a broken nose. “That was years ago when I was new at the game. Taking on a partner was a mistake, so you did me a favor. We could tell you weren’t a Mage or Vampire, but he should have taken your head anyway. Joe was always sloppy. Sorry bastard almost got me killed.”
With lightning speed, Shepherd stabbed Cristo through the palm, pinning his hand to the floor. Cristo bellowed in pain, and before he could even think about blasting Shepherd with his free hand, I flashed over and stepped on it.
Shepherd twisted the knife slowly. “You killed my woman. You killed my future. And you killed… my… baby.”
A slow chuckle rose in Cristo’s chest until he rocked with laughter.
Shepherd wrenched the knife free and chopped off Cristo’s fingers. The Mage’s green eyes bulged, and he clutched his bleeding hand to his chest.
Shepherd held the blade against Cristo’s neck, and a rivulet of blood trickled out. “You held its lifeless body by the leg as if it were nothing but garbage! I’ve waited for this moment for years, but before I make you suffer, I want to know why.”
Cristo stared at the ceiling, his eyes watery and bloodshot from the pain he must have felt in his hand. Yet despite his obvious agony, he looked at Shepherd with amusement. “You really don’t get it, do you? Why would I kill a baby? They’re worth more alive than dead.”
Shepherd blanched, and I stepped on Cristo’s hand even harder until he whimpered and tried to jerk it free.
“Do you think that was my first cesarean?” he continued. “That’s not how I run my business anymore; it was too messy. But I can bring a baby into this world better than any Relic can. I remember that job. Accidentally cut his face when my knife went in. Thought I killed it. I only got paid half for damaging the merchandise.”
Cristo continued laughing maniacally, and I stepped on his hand even harder until I felt the bones crack beneath my boot.
“Fucking bitch,” he snarled.
Incensed, I fell on top of him and clasped my hands over his. With every ounce of power I had within me, I drew out his core light. It happened so fast that his eyes widened with shock. With the last drop, a white flash pulsed between our hands, followed by an audible snap.
“Give it back!” he shouted, realizing I’d stolen his immortality. “Give it back!”
His filthy light coursed through my body like a plague, and I instantly wanted to vomit. Instead, I stood up and wiped the blood off my hand.
“It’s not so funny when someone takes something from you, is it?”
With Cristo now a human and easier to subdue, Viktor led everyone out. Shepherd, however, stayed behind with the ex-Mage. When Viktor closed the door, he stood with his back to it, arms folded as a scream erupted from inside the room.
Not the scream of certain death. The scream of horrors untold.
Chapter 22
I followed Blue and Christian down a narrow hall. Niko remained with Viktor to gather evidence while we searched for the baby.
Christian stopped beneath a metal ladder that went through a round hole in the ceiling. Blue went first. I followed close behind and, once I reached the top, looked around at a kitchen with stainless-steel appliances.
“Who pays the electric bill?” I wondered aloud, not even certain how they managed to get electricity down here.
Christian emerged and stepped off the ladder. “Lucifer. Now let’s get to work. There are only three rooms up here. A bedroom, kitchen, and a study. I can’t hear anything, so I’ll check in here while you two figure out the rest.” He turned on his heel and began pulling at cabinets.
Blue gave me a curt nod. “Let’s go.” She cruised through the study and went straight into the bedroom. The doorways all faced each other, so you could walk straight through each room.
I entered the study, which had books filling the built-in shelves, and headed toward the wall on the right. I didn’t know what a hidden safe looked like, but I remembered the one at Darius’s home and what had triggered it to open. Books flew off the shelves as I littered the floor with the classics. None of the shelves or lower cabinets activated a secret door when I pushed and pulled on them, though I still wasn’t certain if the safe was a room or an actual safe. I ripped the TV out of its cubby and smashed it on the floor.