Winter Halo

by Keri Arthur

  “As I suspect they’re behind the sudden rash of vampire immunity to light.” Nuri frowned. “I’m guessing from that statement—and the nasty gash on your head—that Penny attacked when you entered the room.”

  I nodded. “I’m sorry, Jonas. I tried—”

  He made a sharp “enough” motion with his hand. “I know. It’s just—”

  He cut the rest of the sentence off as Nuri glanced at him again, but I nevertheless knew what he’d been about to say—that he’d sworn an oath to his dead sister to protect Penny, and he kept on failing. A similar sentiment echoed through me. I’d sworn to never let another child suffer, and I was failing in that endeavor every bit as badly with Penny as I had with my ghosts.

  “Do you have any idea where she went when she left here?” Nuri asked.

  “No, but I sent Bear after her. He’ll report back once he knows—”

  “We are not waiting,” Jonas growled. “We all know where they’re headed—for Carleen and the false rifts. It’s their only possible chance of escaping with her.”

  “You can’t be sure of that, Jonas,” Nuri said.

  “The vampires were in retreat to the south-side exit, not the north, by the time we got up here,” Jonas said. “So it’s either Carleen or the vampire den we raided, and I doubt it’s the latter unless it’s the vampires who control her and not Sal’s partners.”

  “I do not think—”

  “Right now I don’t care what you think. I’m going after my niece.” His glare snapped to me. “Are you coming?”

  “Yes.” I pulled my hand from Nuri’s and pushed myself upright. Dizzy weakness washed through me, and I briefly closed my eyes, fighting it.

  “For fuck’s sake, Jonas, the woman’s almost dead on her feet. She needs time—”

  “We haven’t got time.” His gaze swept me. “She’d say if she was incapable.”

  Nuri snorted. “Shows just how much you know, Ranger.” She grabbed my hand, and energy bit at my skin, chasing away some of the tiredness. But she released me altogether too soon. “That’s all I can do for now, so go. And be careful.”

  I nodded, picked up the rifle, and headed out. Jonas was already halfway down the walkway. I collected the second rifle, then followed as quickly as I was able, trying to ignore the stink of the dead as my stomach continued to churn.

  Branna was just waking when we arrived in the downstairs living area. “What the fuck happened?” he said, and then his gaze met mine. “You.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “And that’s two times you’ve tried to kill me now. Try it a third time, and I’ll return the favor.”

  “Only if you see me before I see—”

  “Branna, behave.” Jonas’s tone was curt. “And get some weapons. The vamps have Penny.”

  I glanced sharply at Jonas as Branna scrambled upright and reached for his weapons, but the ranger studiously ignored me and kept on walking. Cat, keep an eye on Branna for me. If he so much as twitches the wrong way, hit him.

  Her anticipation spun through me as she raced off to grab the chair leg she’d abandoned earlier. Obviously, she, like me, didn’t believe Branna would be able to restrain his hatred for all that long.

  I followed Jonas out through the bar and into the lane beyond. The bodies of vampires lay everywhere, but if any mercenaries had died here, then their remains had already been moved. Beyond Chaos, night had given way to sunrise. I could feel it, even if I couldn’t yet see it. And sunrise was deadly to vampires, unless that, too, had changed. But I doubted it—not given that UV light still stopped them.

  So either they’d taken Penny to the den situated in one of the few drainage tunnels that hadn’t been filled in when Central was rebuilt, or someone was meeting them. I suspected the latter, but until Bear returned, we wouldn’t know.

  As we moved down Chaos’s levels, the number of dead and wounded grew, until the noise and the smell made my heart weep. So many people had either lost their lives or been seriously injured, and for what? For a dream of domination that would not only destroy the world as we knew it, but erase everyone within it.

  I couldn’t understand what Sal and his partners really thought they’d gain by such destruction. Surely they couldn’t be foolish enough to believe that the wraiths would allow them to live any longer than their usefulness lasted? Wraiths came to this world to hunt and destroy. We were prey to them, nothing more, just as we were simply a food source to the vampires.

  How would giving control of our world to either be of any benefit to Sal’s partners?

  But I guessed I hadn’t been caught in a rift with a wraith, as they had. Nor had I been driven so close to death in a vampire attack that whatever infections they carried forced a mutation, and made me a dhampir—which was the reason behind Sal and his partners’ ability to communicate with the vampires and wraiths.

  Maybe both those events had changed the way the three of them viewed their relationship with our world. Maybe they no longer even saw themselves as part of this world. While I might have thought that Sal’s contempt for humans had stemmed what had happened to déchet after the war, maybe its source was a rather more alien view of beings they saw as weaker.

  Beings that needed to be erased.

  I shivered and rubbed my arms as we wove our way through the grimy, chaotic ground level and out into sunshine. But it didn’t make me feel any better. Didn’t chase the coldness from my skin or my heart.

  Jonas stopped and knelt, brushing his fingers lightly against the soil. I waited behind him, all too aware that Branna was behind me.

  That he was watching. Waiting.

  And while Jonas’s presence was obviously enough to curtail his almost instinctive need to kill me, it could not and would not erase it.

  I clenched my fingers and fought the urge to reach for one of the rifles strapped across my back. It was the sort of action that might just cause the attack I was trying to avoid.

  “They split up.” Jonas rose and glanced back, his gaze remote. “The main pack ran for the old drainage outlets. Four others headed for the park.”

  “And Penny?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t find her footprints anywhere, and the scent of blood and death coming from Chaos is erasing everything else.”

  “Meaning they’re probably carrying her.”

  “Yes. Our best bet is to split up. Branna, follow the tracks to the outlet and see if you can find any sign of her. Don’t go into the den, though. We’ll track the other four.”

  As Branna grunted and left, Jonas’s gaze swept me, assessing. “They’ve got a good half-hour head start. We need to run—will that be a problem?”

  Yes. But that wasn’t going to stop me. “I’ll keep up.”

  He nodded and led the way forward, setting a pace that, at any other time, would have been easy for me to keep. I bit my lip and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and not falling behind.

  We crossed the Barra River and ran up the valley to the rail yards. Pods were pulling into the station in readiness for the day, but Central’s drawbridge hadn’t yet come down.

  We’d just passed the museum and were approaching the main road when Bear returned. Jonas stopped, obviously sensing his approach.

  “Where did they take her, Bear?” His tone was terse.

  Bear’s energy touched mine. They were met in the forest by a man in an ATV. Penny was transferred into the vehicle and taken on to Carleen. They went into a false rift.

  My stomach sank. I was in no state to traverse a rift. It would, without doubt, kill me.

  “Tiger,” Jonas snapped. “What has happened?”

  “You didn’t hear Bear?”

  “Not this time. I suspect it was deliberate.”

  It was, Bear said. He is very angry right now.

  But not at you. Not even at me. “The vampires were me
t by an ATV in the park. Penny was transferred and taken into Carleen. They went into a rift.”

  “Then we—”

  “There is no we when it comes to traversing the false rift, Jonas.” My voice was soft but determined. “And I haven’t the strength to even try right now.”

  “But maybe I now can. I can hear the ghosts. Maybe that means I can enter the rifts as well.”

  “Do you really want to risk your life—and Penny’s—on a maybe?”

  “For Rhea’s sake, I cannot stand here and do nothing!”

  I understood his urgency—his desperation—but it was nevertheless frustrating that he was thinking with his heart rather than his head.

  But then, if the situation had been reversed, had it been one of my little ones in trouble, I guessed I’d be reacting the same way.

  “Fine. Let’s go to Carleen. If you can see the false rift, you can then decide whether you’ll step into it. But I won’t.”

  His gaze narrowed slightly, but all he said was “Fair enough.”

  With that, he swung around and moved on, this time at a pace I didn’t struggle with. It took just over an hour to reach Carleen. I paused on the broken wall that surrounded the city, my gaze sweeping the immediate surrounds. Nothing appeared to have changed since I was last here, but the air was thick with tension and angst. It stung my skin and demanded my attention.

  But the last thing I needed was another problem. I studiously ignored that angst and the ghosts behind it, and followed Jonas into Carleen, weaving my way through the luminous weeds and broken remnants of life and buildings as we headed up the long hill that led to the main plaza.

  “Bear, which false rift did they use?”

  One on the far side of the hill.

  Jonas must have heard that reply, because he moved off the road again, picking his way through the rubble and dust as he skirted the edges of the plaza. He obviously didn’t want to risk getting too close to the wall of magic Sal’s partners had raised to protect the false rift still sitting within the plaza’s broken heart. After witnessing what that damn wall was capable of, I certainly had no objection.

  It took us twenty minutes to reach the other side of the hill. The desolation here was almost complete—beyond the remnants of the road, there was just dust, weeds, and the sharpening demand for attention from the ghosts. It bit at my consciousness, insisting that I stop, that I acknowledge and talk to them.

  Which I couldn’t do. Not when I was so weak. It would kill me as surely as the false rift would. Cat, I said. Could you explain to the Carleen ghosts that I’m barely functioning right now and that I can’t talk to them? Then ask them what the problem is.

  She was silent for several seconds, then said, They want you to know that the one who raised the wall and created the rift that resides in the plaza has set traps there for you. You should not enter that place if you wish to remain alive.

  And I certainly did. What about the rift Penny was just taken through?

  Brief silence, then, Nothing has been done to it yet. They have just altered those you have already gone through.

  Meaning, perhaps, that they were hoping I wasn’t aware of the others. Or maybe it was simply a matter of not yet having the time to protect them. Can you ask them to keep an eye on the other rifts for me? And let me know if any changes are made to them?

  They will.

  Which at least meant it was one thing I didn’t have to worry about. Thank them for me.

  They said you can thank them by destroying the rifts and the wall that washes its darkness across their bones.

  I frowned. But Nuri shifted the rift away from their bones.

  Yes, but it hasn’t helped. They said that while the false rifts have not changed in size, their energy output seems to be growing. It’s fouling the air and the earth in ever-increasing circles.

  Which wasn’t surprising, given that while the false rifts had been created in this world, the knowledge and the magic had come from another. It was also precisely what Nuri had feared might happen. Tell them we’re trying.

  They said to try harder.

  I snorted. It was that sort of thinking—a failure to see problems beyond their own boundaries—that had led to the war in the first place.

  As we neared the bottom of the hill, energy began to lash at my skin. Up ahead, slightly to the right of the road, an odd, circular patch of darkness began to appear in an area that was nothing but sunshine and dust. Rift. Or rather, the wall of gelatinous shadows that protected one.

  And Jonas wasn’t reacting to it.

  If he couldn’t see the wall, then the likelihood of him being able to traverse the false rift within it was low. But I didn’t say anything, simply waiting and watching as we continued down the last section of the hill, getting closer and closer to that black patch.

  Eventually, I stopped and said, “Jonas, the rift is near enough to touch.”

  He swung around, his gaze sweeping the landscape before meeting mine. Frustration and anger burned the air, as fierce as the nearby shadows were foul.

  “I can’t see it.”

  “Obviously.”

  “Why in Rhea can’t something go right for a damn change?” He flexed his fingers, but the anger continued to radiate from him. “How long will it take you to regain enough energy to go in there?”

  “I’m not entirely sure that would be a wise move—”

  “So we stand around out here and do nothing? That’s not going to happen, Tiger. You have to go in after them.”

  “Or what?” I snapped. “You’ll make me? Have Nuri threaten my little ones again?”

  “No, of course not.” He thrust a hand through his short hair, frustration obvious. “But you’re the only one who can go through this thing, and that means you’re Penny’s only chance. I need you to do this, Tiger. Please.”

  Despite my annoyance over his insistence, a smile tugged at my lips. “A ranger pleading with a déchet for help. Who’d have thought such a thing would be possible one hundred years ago?”

  “Certainly not me.” Amusement briefly lit his eyes, but faded all too quickly. “Your answer?”

  “Fine, I’ll go in,” I said, even as every part of me said it was a bad idea. “But not now. I need to get back to Central and Winter Halo.”

  He frowned. “Doing so would be a dangerous ploy, given that we snatched the children from them.”

  “We rescued another two, but there’s still seven out there somewhere.” Eight, if we included the now-missing Penny. “Besides, Sharran is due back at work tonight, and if she doesn’t appear they might just jump to the right conclusions.”

  “We could simply send her back in. There is no need for you to be there now.”

  “If we did that, we’d gain no knowledge as to what the hell is going on in those upper levels.” Besides, the last thing I wanted was to put Sharran’s life in danger, which it would be if she were promoted. At least I had a fighting chance of escaping the drugs and the dissection; she did not.

  “Rath Winter is no fool—it’s highly likely he’ll suspect you’ve infiltrated that place. Especially now.”

  “He undoubtedly will, but it’s doubtful he’ll suspect Sharran, as she hasn’t yet been promoted to the upper floors.”

  He studied me for a moment, then said, “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

  I hesitated. “They have Sal’s body.”

  “And this is a problem because . . . ?”

  “Because Sal was one of the rare grays—a déchet whose DNA was mixed with that of a salamander. Only five of them ever survived; understanding why might just give his partners the information they need to successfully merge human or shifter DNA with wraith. I have to get in there and destroy his remains before that happens.”

  And, if I could, destroy the labs, free the women waiting in the holding c
ells, and release those on the dissection tables to death.

  It was a tall order, and one I might not achieve. But I had to at least try.

  Jonas didn’t immediately say anything, but an odd buzzing began in the back of my mind. I frowned and tried to pin down its source. I caught a word—chance—and realized I was hearing—or almost hearing—the telepathic conversation between Jonas and Nuri. Or his side of it, at least.

  Then the buzzing stopped and Jonas said, “Fine. I don’t agree that it’s the best course of action right now, but it would seem I’m outvoted.”

  “And does your disagreement stem from the danger, or from the fact that you’d rather I gain strength and then follow Penny and her captors into the false rift?”

  “I won’t deny I’d rather you do the latter, but to suggest that overshadows my concerns about you going back into Winter Halo belittles both them and me.”

  He swung around and headed across the emptiness, his long, angry strides stirring up a thick cloud of dust. The slight breeze caught it, spinning it into circular patterns, until it seemed he was being followed by a multitude of dust devils.

  Why was I destined to always say the wrong thing around this man? It was decidedly odd, especially when my success as a lure very much depended on always knowing what—and what not—to say. But maybe men were easier to understand when they were little more than targets whom I might or might not be attracted to.

  I followed him at a slower pace. After a while, he stopped and waited for me to catch up, then remained by my side as we silently left Carleen and moved back into the forest separating it from Central.

  When we finally neared the rail station, he said, “Remember, none of us can help you once you’re inside Winter Halo.”

  “I know, but I have the ghosts.”

  “Even ghosts have their limitations. Just be careful, and report in when you’re able.”

  There was something in his tone that had me wondering if Nuri had said anything specific about things going wrong in Winter Halo. But surely she wouldn’t have agreed it was necessary for me to return to that place if she, in any way, suspected I might not get out alive? Not given her declaration that if I didn’t rescue the children, no one would.