Ghost at the Feast: The Nightwatch Book 3

by Cassidy, Debbie

  How had I not smelled that rat? “I should have figured you were involved in this. I should have put together the pieces.”

  He was in charge of the Reverie PD, the best person to manipulate the reports and to manipulate Vick. Shit, he’d even commented on Kris’s cuffs. Fucker had figured out what Kris was. Yeah, I should have figured it out.

  “Better late than never,” Brass said. “I have to admit, I’m impressed by your team. The stealth in getting into the building and finding our lair. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.”

  Lair … had he actually just called it that?

  “It was highly entertaining watching you work.”

  They’d known we’d come. Oh, crap. “You left the bracelet for us to find.”

  “Sure did. The demon Kris is a fantastic addition to our herd, but the real objective was you, Miss Justice, and he will be so pleased with us.”

  He? A shiver shot up my spine, and ice coalesced at the base of my neck. “What are you talking about?”

  He smiled. “The shimmer man, of course. He’s been waiting for you for so long, and once we deliver you, once he’s here with us, he’ll give us what we desire the most.”

  “I don’t understand. How can you know him? How …” My mind was spinning.

  “He was a dream at first,” Brass said. “But I soon realized he was more than that. We’ve become good friends, he and I. He doesn’t deserve to be trapped. All that power wasted. No. I vowed to help him, and in turn, he will give us, the tainted, the power that we were denied.”

  This was wrong. Lex had said the Custodians wanted supernaturals dead because they identified more with humans. He’d called us abominations, but Brass was singing a new tune, one which said that the Custodians envied us. They wanted to be us. Which could only mean that Brass was working against the Custodians’ code.

  I needed to stay calm. To think. “What did you do?”

  “We completed the first step. We used the blood of the tainted in a ritual that created a bridge to bring him into the pool of souls that houses humanity, and now he has power at his fingertips. He’s gaining strength as we speak. Once he’s free, we won’t have to scavenge, stealing power from the blood of supernaturals. We’ll no longer be the lesser species, forever stuck in between.”

  The binding must have weakened enough for the shimmer man to get into the dreams of others … The tainted and the harpies. He’d used them to do his bidding and get to the sea of human souls. Brass said he was gaining energy. Was that the part the sleeping humans were playing in his plan?

  “He’ll be so pleased once he discovers we have you,” Brass said. “Plan B will no longer be needed.” He rubbed his hands together like the perfect nutty villain.

  Plan B?

  I was so confused.

  “Get to work, Lincoln. Undo the binding. Get it done,” Brass said. “I have some pureblood supernaturals to play with.”

  He left the room, leaving me alone with Lincoln.

  A weaver … He had to be one to undo the binding. “Why are you doing this? Why are you working with them? You’re not one of them.”

  His jaw ticked. “No. I’m not. But they have something very precious to me. I don’t have a choice.”

  Leverage. Of course. “What if I could get it back for you?”

  He sighed. “You can’t. I’m sorry. I promise this won’t hurt.”

  “The binding is solid. Trust me. The head weaver at Watch HQ built it. You won’t be able to undo it.”

  His smile was sad. “I won’t have to. It will undo itself.” He held up a syringe. “I’m a bioweaver for Winterfell Tech. The best. I wouldn’t be here otherwise. This serum will deactivate the weave that binds you and your gargoyle. It may take a few hours, but it will do the job.”

  Oh, shit. Bioweavers were rare. Bioweavers were fucking dangerous. I was so screwed.

  “Don’t. Please. If you do this, you’re dooming us all. If the shimmer man gets out, there’s no telling what he’ll do. He’s insane.”

  He approached me with the needle. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t. Please!” I craned away from him, straining against the restraints.

  The needle pricked my skin, and cold fire seeped into my veins. My scream locked in my throat, and then darkness claimed me.

  I was back in the bubble, the egg, the fractured haven that kept me safe, but the fractures were growing at an exponential rate now.

  “I see you, Kat,” the shimmer man said. “Oh, this is delightful. This is perfect. This is—”

  “Fuck you, asshole.” I slapped myself hard.

  Wake the fuck up.

  I awoke with a gasp. Alone. No Lincoln. No Brass. Just me and my restraints and a ticking fucking clock.

  The binding was coming undone. I had to get out of here. Had to get to Tris and Karishma.

  I had to stop this.

  Come on. I strained against the metal to get free. My eyes burned with impotence. Damn real life. If this were a movie, I’d have busted free through sheer determination and adrenaline alone.

  I couldn’t do it. I was stuck. I couldn’t do this alone. I needed help.

  “What do you think will happen to this one?” a female voice said.

  “I dunno, but I wish we had popcorn.”

  “Why? It’s not like we can fucking eat it.”

  “We could smell it?” the guy said.

  “We can’t smell, you idjit.”

  “Well, it would make being stuck in this place more entertaining.” There was a definite sulk to the male’s voice now.

  “What?” The female’s tone rose an octave. “How would popcorn that we can’t eat or smell make anything better?”

  I scanned the room until I spotted them. Translucent, wispy, but here. The two specters hovered by the door. Watching me.

  “Ben, is she looking at us?” the female asked.

  “Nah, she probably feels a chill, a presence. Whoooooo.” He raised his spectral hands and wavered spookily.

  “You’re a dick, you know that?” the female said.

  “And you still love me.”

  Ghosties. Okay. This could work. “You know what would go even greater with that popcorn? An action movie. I swear if you help me get out of here, I’ll give you a show to remember.”

  “Ben! Fucking hell, she’s talking to us.”

  “Nah, can’t be.”

  I smiled. “It is. I can see you. I can hear you, and if you help me, I can get you out of here.”

  They floated closer, solidifying enough for me to make out features. They were both young, both dark-haired with similar features. Siblings?

  “What happened to you both?”

  “Brass happened,” the woman said. “He said he could make us stronger. More powerful.”

  “Instead, he killed us,” the guy finished sullenly.

  “Experiment gone bad,” the woman clarified.

  “Too many like us down here. Too many trapped by the fucking wards on this place.”

  Lincoln’s wards to prevent supernatural detection–they must be keeping the spirits in. Wait a fucking second. “How many of you are there?”

  “Fifty, sixty.” The woman shrugged. “Why?”

  “How do you guys fancy kicking some ass?”

  They exchanged glances. “We can’t touch anything.”

  If they’d been regular ghosts, then this would have been harder. With no nearby leyline to tap into, affecting their surroundings would be impossible, which was why regular ghosts loved Scorchwood. But these were tainted ghosts, and the tainted ghosts had one advantage over regular ghosts.

  I grinned. “Oh, you can touch stuff. How about I show you how?”

  * * *

  Five minutes later, head spinning slightly, I stood by the weird dentist chair, rubbing my wrists. My weapons belt was back around my waist, but my gun was missing. Ah, there it was, in the cabinet across the room.

  “That was amazing!” Ben said.

  He looke
d almost solid after siphoning energy off me.

  The fuzzy feeling subsided. “Yeah, great, but you need to be careful not to take too much.”

  “Why?” he asked. “Because I might kill someone? Those fuckers killed us. They deserve to die.”

  Valid point.

  “They do.” Lincoln entered the room. “But if you kill them, then you’ll become riders.”

  My blade was in my hand, ready to maim. So that’s how riders were made.

  Ben flew at Lincoln, intent on grabbing him around the throat to siphon. Light crackled, and the specter was thrown back. He vanished for a moment and then reappeared at the back of the room, looking stunned.

  “You can’t siphon off me,” Lincoln said matter-of-factly.

  He could see them too? Fuck, did that mean I had to give up my I’m-special badge? Nah, he was probably like Lark, able to see and hear but not do much else.

  I held up my dagger. “How about an old-fashioned stabbing?”

  Lincoln raised his palms placatingly. “I’m not here to stop you. I’ve done what Brass wanted. What happens next isn’t my problem.”

  “What’s a rider?” the female ghost asked.

  “A specter driven by rage and hunger,” Lincoln said. “There’s no coming back from that.” But his attention was still on me. “Brass is holding your friends in Sector A cell block. Your demon friend is with the others in the blood-letting chamber in Sector B.” He unclipped a card from his lab coat and handed it to me. “Take this, knock me out, and then go.”

  He really didn’t want to be helping Brass. “Come with me.”

  “I can’t. Not while Brass has my family. I can’t risk them getting hurt. If I come with you and you fail … He’ll find out I defected, and he will kill them.”

  There was nothing I could do for him. I had to get out of here before the binding unraveled.

  “How long have I got?”

  “A couple of hours if you’re lucky,” Lincoln said. “I know you came here intent on taking the Custodians down, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The network is vast. Right now, most of the operatives are asleep. I suggest you grab your friends and get out while you can.”

  “And Brass?”

  “He left twenty minutes ago, but he’ll be back soon.”

  “Fine.” I strode up to Lincoln. “Not gonna lie, this will hurt.” I slammed the butt of my blade against his temple.

  He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

  “Neat,” Ben said.

  I turned to the ghosts. “You guys want out of here, then you do as I say. Tell the other specters to siphon. Enough to weaken the Custodians. Enough to keep them under, and then meet me at the exit.”

  The female narrowed her eyes. “How will you get us out? There are wards on this place.”

  “I can tether you all to me. Just long enough to step out of the bunker. If you’re tethered to me, it might fool the wards.”

  “Might?”

  “It’s better than nothing, right?”

  They exchanged glances, and then the woman nodded. “You have a deal.”

  “Good luck.” I pocketed the keycard, grabbed my pistol from the cabinet across the room, and headed out to save my friends.

  Hero mode activated.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The corridor beyond the lab was nondescript and bland. Probably should have asked Lincoln which way Sector A was before knocking him unconscious.

  Ben materialized before me. “You have no idea where to go, do you?”

  “Ah, my gallant guide.” I fluttered my lashes at him.

  He rolled his eyes, immune to my charms. I really needed to work on those.

  “This way.” He floated down the corridor ahead of me.

  We moved fast, but I allowed him to check that the coast was clear before taking each turn.

  Every corridor was beige and brown. The lights were too bright, and if someone did step out of one of the rooms we’d passed, there’d be nowhere to hide and nothing to duck behind.

  Just keep moving.

  “Okay, if we take a left here, it goes to the residential quarters,” Ben said. “That’s where Fleur will take the others to do the siphon thing.”

  “As long as she remembers to tell them—”

  “Not to kill, yeah, she knows.” He slipped through a set of double doors, and I followed using my keycard to find myself in a cell block.

  “Kat?” Bres grabbed the bars of his cell to my left. His eyes were wild, his chest rising and falling quickly.

  “Fucking hell.” Jay joined him at the bars.

  Lark stood slowly, his wary attention on Ben. “You got help.”

  I sure did. “Ben and his sister got me out of a sticky situation.” No need to tell them the full extent just yet. Best to get out of here first. “Ben, we need to find the keys.”

  “On the wall behind you,” Ben said. “Old-school style.”

  Yep, there they were. A bunch of keys on a ring. I guess tech could fuck up, but you couldn’t get much wrong when you used a set of iron keys.

  I grabbed the bunch and tried several before finding the correct one to let the guys out.

  Bres tugged me into his arms and squeezed. “I thought … Fuck, I thought bad stuff.”

  I inhaled him and allowed myself one moment to revel in the contact before pulling away. “I’ll explain everything later, but right now, we need to find Kris and get out of here. We can’t hang about. We free as many as we can, and we get out.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Jay said. “Mai will have taken one van, but we should be able to squeeze into the second one.”

  “If you’re done planning, how about some action,” Ben suggested.

  Lark handed out the weapons belts. “He’s right.”

  “Who’s right?” Jay asked.

  I touched Jay and Bres, pushing my sight into them.

  Jay blinked sharply at Ben.

  Bres merely nodded. “There are more?”

  “Hell, yes,” Ben said.

  I hit the release button on the exit. “Lead the way.”

  * * *

  Sector B had wider corridors and was painted dark brown. Red lines ran along the wall.

  Several rooms led off this corridor. A couple of small labs and three operating rooms.

  “This is where the magic happens,” Ben said bitterly. “This is where they do the experiments. It’s where I died.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lark said.

  “They’re not supposed to be doing this,” Ben continued. “But you probably gathered that. This isn’t what the Custodians are supposed to be about. They’re supposed to eliminate supernaturals to keep humans safe, at least that’s what the Rise advocates. But not all the houses follow the rules, and how the fuck are the Rise gonna monitor all activity? Too much corruption on the inside.”

  The corridor widened and then ended in a set of double doors. The scent of blood was strong in the air.

  “Here,” Ben said. “This is where they extract what they need.” His lip curled.

  I swiped the keycard, and the door unlocked with a click.

  Kris was beyond this door.

  Oh, God, what if he was … No, don’t think about it.

  Bres’s hand settled on my shoulder, and he squeezed slightly. “Let me.”

  He pushed the door open, and the stench of death and antiseptic hit me in the face. The room was bathed in red light, like something out of a horror movie. Huge fluid-filled glass tanks stood in rows across the room, each filled with a body connected to pipes. Vital stats blinked on screens attached to the tanks.

  “They’re in stasis,” Lark said. “We need to wake them up.”

  “Fifteen,” Bres counted. “Do we have time?”

  But I was looking for Kris. Oh, God, there he was. Suspended naked in fluid. There was a mask on his nose and mouth and several pipes poking into his skin. The screen showed his blood count. They were taking blood at regular intervals but giving his marrow ti
me to produce more.

  “Lark, over here!”

  Lark joined me, cursing softly under his breath, and began to tap away at the screen.

  “I found clothes,” Jay said. He hauled a chest into the center of the room.

  “Almost got it,” Lark muttered. There was a soft beep, and then the water in the tank began to drain.

  Kris opened his eyes and then began to thrash about.

  “He’s panicking,” Lark said. He pressed his palms to the glass. “It’s okay, buddy. It’s okay. Look at me.”

  Kris’s eyes rolled in his head, unseeing.

  The water vanished, and he hit the ground, tearing at the needles on his body.

  I crouched and tapped the glass. “Kris, come on, look at me.”

  “The tube should retract in a moment,” Lark informed me.

  Kris yanked at the mask.

  “Kris!”

  The mask snapped off, and he raised his head to look at me. Our gazes locked, and his dazed expression sharpened.

  “Kat.”

  “Yeah, babe, we’re here. We’re going to get you out.”

  The glass began to slide up into the ceiling, and then Kris was in my arms, shivering, naked, and wet, but alive.

  * * *

  Four demons, two Nightbloods, and a moonkissed pulled on clothes in the corner of the room. They looked dazed and weak. The Custodians had given them enough nourishment to keep them alive, but that was all.

  They’ve been gene mapping the Nightblood and the moonkissed,” Jay muttered. “Lark thinks they’re trying to recreate the supernatural gene sequence, and then isolate elements they can splice into tainted to give them special abilities.”

  Lark worked furiously to try and get the last few glass prisons open.

  Ben had left a few minutes ago to check on his sister. He flew into the room now and came to a stop mere inches from me.

  “We need to go,” he said. “Now. There’s been an accident.”

  “What kind of accident?” Bres asked.

  “The kind where several Custodians are dead.” He winced.

  “I don’t see the problem,” Bres said.

  Oh, crap. “How many riders?”