Winter Halo

by Keri Arthur

  “It was interesting.” I dug the trail bread out of my pocket and offered him a piece as we moved into the park. “She claimed the place was haunted.”

  He shook his head. “By ghosts? Or something else?”

  “She said ghosts. I believe it might be someone using a sun shield.” I broke off a bit of the bread and munched on it.

  “That’s a rare talent—”

  “And one Sal was not only capable of, but also his partners. Remember, I was tracked to Old Stan’s by someone who neither of us could see.”

  “Someone whose scent was feminine.” He was silent for a minute, his gaze sweeping the shadows. “Did these so-called ghosts do anything?”

  I quickly repeated everything Kendra had said, then added, “But the wounds she showed me were made by either a knife or a needle. I believe they were taking a blood sample.”

  He frowned. “Is that going to create a problem for you when we get you in there?”

  “Given that we’re not sure what they’re actually testing for, I can’t say. They’ll find both vampire and tiger shifter DNA, but it might be something of an advantage in this case.”

  “Except that they’ll know you’re a déchet.”

  “Yes, but for all they know, the person I’m replacing might be one of the rare survivors of a vampire attack and therefore a dhampir. I’d imagine their DNA would be similar to that of a déchet, given survivors undergo a physical change.”

  “Yes, but the vampire factor will undoubtedly cause alarm. The next logical step would be to check that person’s history, as all survivors by law have to be listed.” He paused, his expression thoughtful. “It could be possible, of course, to alter said history and add a line or two about surviving an attack.”

  I snorted. “And how are you going to do that? With the government connections you swear you don’t have?”

  “We are not connected. As I said, we just undertake certain operations on a per-mission basis.”

  “That is a connection in my books.” I finished the portion of trail bread and brushed the crumbs off my fingers. “Whatever is going on at Winter Halo is happening in the upper levels. Until I can get in there, Fontaine is our best source of information.”

  “If he knows anything. He may not.”

  “If the financial director doesn’t know where the bodies are buried, I’m not sure who would.”

  Jonas half smiled. “Stranger things have happened.”

  Yeah, like a ranger being attracted to a déchet despite his experiences in the war and the hatred that ran river deep within him—not that he’d verbalize the attraction any more than I intended to.

  It took us just under an hour to get to Carleen. I paused on the wide, empty verge that separated the park from the city’s broken walls and scanned the area. As usual, Carleen was still and silent. Something had changed, though—the pall of darkness that hung over this place whether it was night or day had deepened. But it wasn’t just the darkness that came from the suffering and the death of all those who’d been in this city when the last bombs of the war razed it, nor was it the darkness that came with the presence of so many rifts. This darkness held not only a deep and alien sense of power but also hate. The sort of hate that had started a war and almost destroyed a world.

  And it was coming from the center of Carleen, where the wall of unseen energy surrounded the city square and the few building remnants that still stood there.

  Nuri was right. The magic was growing in power. What that meant for not only Carleen and its ghosts, but also those of us who lived beyond its broken walls, I couldn’t say. But I had a bad feeling we needed to find some way to either stop it or destroy it before it gained too much of a foothold in this world.

  “There are no rifts nearby,” Jonas said.

  “I wish the same could be said about that magic.”

  He glanced at me sharply. “It’s moved?”

  “It’s more that it’s bleeding into the surrounding areas rather than moving.” I hesitated, then forced my feet forward. “I think you’d better tell Nuri to get her ass up here as soon as the sun is up tomorrow. I think it’s a threat that needs to be dealt with promptly.”

  He didn’t say anything, meaning he was more than likely passing my comments on to Nuri. I jumped onto a low section of wall and once again paused, taking in the ruptured remnants of buildings and—to my left—the remains of what had once been a main road through the city. It was littered with building rubble, weeds, and trees that had been twisted into odd shapes thanks to the eddying magic of the rifts. Plastic of various shapes and sizes—rubbish that had survived the destruction far better than Carleen itself—provided spots of color against the gray of this place, as did the alien moss that continued to claim a growing portion of the city, and which glowed with an unworldly luminescence.

  “Nuri is on the way.”

  I glanced at him. “She’s risking coming out at night? When she’s night-blind?”

  “Yes. There are such things as night-vision goggles, you know.” He stopped beside me. “She asked us to wait for her.”

  “You wait. I need to go investigate the rift this magic protects.”

  “But—”

  “No,” I cut in. “It’ll take Nuri at least an hour to get here, and that is time we cannot spare if indeed it is running out for those kids.”

  “If the magic has grown, then you may not get past it. Nuri can at least tell us where its boundaries now lie.”

  “My ghosts can tell me that.” I met his gaze evenly. “And let’s not pretend you are, in any way, concerned for my personal safety. Just that of the mission to rescue the children and the part I still have to play in it.”

  “Meaning you have yet again misjudged me.” He waved a hand, as if in dismissal of the disbelief that instantly sprang to my lips. “Go. I’ll wait here for Nuri.”

  I hesitated, then simply nodded and leapt off the wall. But that didn’t stop the questions that crowded my mind. How the hell had I misjudged him? He’d done nothing but snipe and mistrust from the moment we officially met in that cell lit by vampire lights. Had done nothing but question both my motives and my actions, attempting to trip me up and reveal secrets. While his overall demeanor had lightened somewhat since he peeled away the last of those, the hatred of my race still ran deep. I could feel it, even if I could no longer see it.

  I reached the road and headed up the long slope toward the central plaza, taking care to avoid the long strips of moss that now covered a good third of the broken asphalt. I knew from experience the moss leaked a substance that acted like acid on the skin; to say it was an unpleasant and painful experience would be something of an understatement.

  Both my little ghosts kept close as we moved farther up the hill, but the Carleen ghosts were noticeably absent. Whether they’d been banished, or whether they’d simply fled the encroaching magic, I couldn’t say, but it left an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Anything that frightened ghosts sure as hell was worthy of fear.

  “Bear, do you want to warn me the minute we near that barrier?”

  His reassurance swept through me, though both of them were uneasy about getting too much closer. But it had to be done, just as the rift it was protecting had to be explored; there was no other way we were going to uncover where it went.

  The farther we moved up the hill, the closer we got to the plaza, the more the dark magic grew, until its foulness burned every breath and my skin itched with the sting of a thousand fire ants.

  This might have originated in a dark witch’s corruption of the earth’s power, but it was now being fueled by magic that wasn’t of this world—the same magic I’d felt in the shield that protected the false rifts, but deeper, more dangerous. Maybe that was why I was aware of it tonight when I hadn’t felt it previously.

  We were still a good twenty meters away from the top of the
hill when Bear’s energy slapped against me, warning me to stop.

  I’d been right—the dark magic was on the move, even if at a slower pace than I’d first feared. But there was still no sign of its presence on the ground or in the air; if not for the foul corruption staining my lungs and burning my skin, it would have been easy to believe nothing had changed since I was last here.

  I glanced up. Again, nothing. “Cat, can you check how far up this thing now goes? Bear, do you want to check the circumference? But be careful, both of you.”

  As they spun off to investigate, I crossed my arms and studied the city square above me, even though I couldn’t see much of it from where I stood. But I could see the top of the false rift. The first time I was here, it had hovered at the base of the bomb crater, above the remnants of the shelters that now housed little more than the bones of all those who had died there. I shouldn’t have been able to see the rift from where I stood, which meant either the rift had grown or it had been moved again.

  If what I was seeing was real, that is.

  Given the strength and bite of the magic, it was totally possible that it was fouling not only the earth and the bones of the ghosts, but what I was seeing as well.

  I shivered and rubbed my arms. I really didn’t want to either breach it or go into that rift. I had a bad feeling doing either would be inviting trouble. But I wasn’t about to turn around, as much as instinct was telling me to.

  I couldn’t.

  Cat returned with the news that the height was now three trees. Which meant, working on the average size of the trees in the park, somewhere between forty-five and sixty meters.

  “Is it open at the top?”

  Her energy touched me lightly. Yes.

  I wasn’t sure whether that was good news or bad. It certainly made it easier for me to get in there, but that might well have been the whole point.

  Bear’s news also wasn’t great—the barrier had leached much farther down the other side of the hill and the force of it was destroying whatever building remnants had survived the war.

  “Did you see the Carleen ghosts?”

  Bear made a brief connection. They have gathered near the old cemetery.

  I frowned. “The one outside the walls?” The one I’d battled the wraiths in?

  Yes, though they gather inside the walls, not beyond them.

  I hesitated and then said, “Cat, could you go down there and ask them why they moved?”

  You don’t want us with you? Bear asked.

  I caught their hands lightly. “I’d love for you both to accompany me, but I’m going into the false rift and we already know you can’t. Once you’ve talked to the ghosts, go back to Nuri and Jonas. Keep an eye on what they’re doing. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  I released them. Once they’d left, I took a deep breath, drawing in the night, letting it filter through me, change me, until I was once again little more than shadowed energy. I surged upward, being mindful of both the distance I was traveling and the shield I couldn’t see but could still feel. Once I was well over sixty meters in the air, I moved toward the square, making sure I took a curving path rather than a more direct flat one. The foul energy briefly grew more intense about three meters in and then disappeared. Its abrupt absence made me feel a whole lot lighter—and a whole lot cleaner.

  When I reached the center of the old city square, I paused and studied the ground below me. I’d half expected vampires or wraiths or some other force waiting for me, but the square was empty and quiet. The only thing stirring was the occasional dust devil caused by the wind drifting through. The false rift still hovered above the bones of Carleen’s people, meaning what I’d seen on the other side of the wall had been nothing more than an illusion.

  Unless, of course, what I was seeing now was the illusion.

  I took a deep breath to calm the nerves, but just as I started down again, movement caught my eye. The rift had begun to spin gently on its axis, its dark surface alive with shimmering, sparkling energy.

  A heartbeat later, a fist-sized hole appeared in the shield I’d only been able to feel up until now. Light began to peel away from this point, until what had formed was a doorway.

  Through this stepped a woman.

  She was tall, thickset, with dark hair and skin, but even as I watched, her form began to ripple—change—until what stalked toward the rift was tall and thin, with pale skin, close-cropped blond hair, and an odd mark at the nape of her neck.

  And the power that radiated from her was every bit as powerful as that I sensed in Nuri—only its feel was corrupted, alien.

  This was our earth witch, and the third of Sal’s partners.

  I arrowed down as fast as I could, but the woman disappeared inside the rift before I could get close enough to grab her. I cursed and shifted shape, landing feetfirst and in my true form. Lightning lashed out from the rift’s dark surface; it wrapped around my wrists and ankles, then unceremoniously dragged me toward the fast-rotating dark orb. Air spun around me, thick and foul and filled with dust, growing stronger and stronger, until it felt like I was being pulled into the heart of a gale—and one that might very well lead to a trap. Just because there’d been nothing waiting for me on this side of the unseen shield didn’t mean there wouldn’t be anything on the other.

  The darkness of the rift encased me. Energy burned around me, through me, tearing me apart, atom by atom, until there was nothing left but an echo and a thought. Then, piece by tiny piece, it put me back together again.

  I had no idea how long I hung in that darkness, silently screaming, but eventually the energy died, the whips holding me disintegrated, and I was jettisoned out onto a surface that was hard and cold.

  All I wanted to do was collapse in a bleeding heap and let my body repair itself, but I had no idea where I was or who might be near. And the witch I’d followed surely couldn’t be too far away.

  I forced my head up, sucking air into my burning lungs as I scanned the immediate area. The room wasn’t locked in darkness, as I’d half expected, but instead washed by a clean blue-white light. I couldn’t sense my quarry’s presence—or anyone else’s, for that matter—but the room itself wasn’t empty. Rows and rows of high metal shelving stretched before me, each one filled with an assortment of boxes or old bits of office equipment. Dust swirled through the air, the only indication someone had been through here recently.

  I took a deep, shuddering breath, then crawled over to the wall and called to the healing magic. I might want to give chase, but doing so when my strength was low wasn’t a good option right now.

  Once the lash marks on my body and limbs had healed and my energy levels were somewhat replenished, I changed the color of my hair and eyes as well as my scent, then pushed myself upright.

  The dust had settled, but it had left enough of a trail to follow. I wove my way through the metal canyons and couldn’t help noticing that many items on the shelves bore government bar codes. Had I landed in some sort of dumping space for unwanted items? It might explain the government-marked crates I’d discovered in the Broken Mountains base—though all of those had seemed far newer than anything here.

  I continued on, but the room was vast, and it seemed to take forever before I finally reached anything resembling a door.

  But it was one hell of a door.

  It was ten feet high and at least that in width, and made of a sturdy metal that rivaled anything I had in my bunker. It not only had blood and iris scanners on board but almost medieval-looking dead bolts. While these had been slammed home, they weren’t actually padlocked, but they didn’t need to be, thanks to the attached electronics.

  I wasn’t getting through this door with anything short of a cannon. Certainly, none of my weapons would make even the smallest dent in it. And I doubted I could shoot the panels out of action—as I had done in the basement of Deseo—simply because
these appeared to be a more modern version of the ones I had in the bunker. Shooting them sure as hell hadn’t gotten me anywhere.

  Which meant I had two choices—either I went back through that damn false rift, or I made some noise and got some attention.

  After a moment’s hesitation, I stepped up to the door, raised a fist, and hit it as hard as I could.

  Chapter 6

  The metal rang like a bell and the sound echoed loudly in the silence. I moved back and away, keeping to the left of the door as I hastily wrapped a light shield around myself. I wasn’t sure how strong it was or how long it would hold, given the low-grade level of the lights in this place, but it was all I had. The corridors and rooms beyond this one would undoubtedly be brighter, so taking on energy form would be pretty pointless—especially given my reserves weren’t great.

  For several seconds, nothing happened. But as the echoes began to subside, the panel on this side of the door sprang to life, quickly running through its various checks before it cleared whoever was on the other side.

  I unclipped a gun, flicked the silencer into place, and held it at the ready. The bolts slid back and then the panel flashed green and the door silently opened. No one entered, nor could I see anyone. Not from where I stood, anyway.

  But I could hear them breathing. Could sense their tension, expectation, and alert readiness. Whoever these people were, they were well trained.

  After a moment, one man in a mottled blue uniform slipped through the door, his movements quiet and fluid.

  I closed my eyes and silently swore. Corps. Rhea help me, they were corps.

  The first man stopped to the right of the door and silently scanned the room, his rifle raised and ready to fire. After a moment, he motioned to those behind him. Three more slipped in, blue ghosts who quickly and silently moved toward the shelving.

  Tension ran through me, but I didn’t move and I kept my gun raised and ready.

  The three disappeared into the long metal canyons. The fourth remained near the door and didn’t move. It left me with little choice but to risk slipping past him.