Eternal Void (Isabella Espinoza Book 2)

by K Hanson

  I squeezed her shoulder. “You’ve done more than anyone could expect, Amari. You’ve survived until now. You’ve made it through and still have your spirit. Hold onto that. Now, please, let me do my job and end this. When I’m back, you can start training for real with me.”

  Amari looked down at the ground and nodded. I patted her on the back, and then, without another word, strode out of the cathedral.

  As I headed toward the gate, I checked my ammo situation. I had basically none left, so I picked up some that the guards could spare. Normally, they wouldn’t give it away to random people that weren’t guards, but they let it slide after the help I had given them during the night stalker attack. Plus, assuring them that I was trying to prevent another such attack helped get them on my good side, too.

  They shoved aside a panel of the placeholder gate to let me through and then slid it back into place behind me. I watched my step, careful to avoid any of the leftover night stalker gore that still covered parts of the ground. The rubbery sulfur stink of their blood remained in the air.

  Turning toward downtown, I set off down the hill. It was convenient that it was downhill into the Void. It made me feel like I was walking down into Hell.

  A wonderfully comforting feeling.

  Soon, at the base of the hill, I reached the boundary between the regular Eternal Dusk and the Void. It was like a thick black fog stood in front of me, waiting to swallow me into its cold embrace.

  I paused to listen for any sounds.

  A distant shriek of a night stalker, but not close enough to be concerning.

  Behind me, I thought I heard the crunch of someone walking on a loose bit of asphalt, and then a sharp intake of breath. I turned around but didn’t see anything.

  No use worrying about a tail just yet. If someone wanted to follow me into the Void, they were more than welcome to try.

  I passed through the Veil, immediately feeling the weight of the Void swallowing me. Within the deeper darkness, I paused for a moment as my eyes adjusted. A normal person wouldn’t be able to see anything without a light source. For me, it was just like stepping into a dim room after being in the sun. After a minute, I could see through the shadows. I looked down at the tracker on my wrist, which now lit up with a dull glow rather than the brightness it had before.

  Onward I went.

  I slowed myself down and kept my footsteps light. I didn’t hear anything close enough to be a threat, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something lurking out there. And if I could hear them, they could probably hear me.

  I passed by the downtown library, and then remembered my last trip here. Two night stalkers had chased me through the library, and I’d barely managed to lose them. That was also the night before I had met up with Howard and Rose up at Cathedral Hill. The memory of Howard sank into my gut.

  I shook my head, focusing on the task around me. No time for guilt to distract me now.

  A night stalker shrieked from the south, this time closer than before. As soon as I could, I turned north toward the Falls and picked up my pace. I wove my way past the Old Courthouse Museum and a couple of long-abandoned bars. I turned onto the street that would lead me straight to the Falls as more night stalker shrieks sounded behind me.

  I chanced a look over my shoulder. A pack of five or six of the creatures several blocks away plodded their way down the middle of the road. They didn’t seem like they had spotted me yet. Keeping to the shadows, I picked up my pace. I didn’t want to fight any more night stalkers if I could help it. I’d had quite enough of that the last day.

  Something snapped behind me, and then a woman’s voice whispered, “Shit.”

  Amari wouldn’t be foolish enough to follow me into the Void, would she? Whoever it was had just stepped on something.

  The night stalkers perked up, turning their attention toward whatever had made the noise.

  They were off my tail, but now that poor person was about to get mobbed by monsters. I knew I should just keep going, but the woman who was soon to be their victim hadn’t done anything to me yet. Maybe she was just an innocent person out for a stroll. If she was going to attack me, she probably would have done it by now. It might even be Amari, though I hoped it wasn’t.

  No, she needed my help.

  Screw me sideways. I wish I could just ignore it, but that wasn’t who I was.

  I turned around and dashed back the way I came as the night stalkers charged toward the source of the noise. They turned the corner toward the person a block before I could get there.

  One of them glanced at me as it made the turn but didn’t seem to care. They were on the trail of prey and were focused on taking it down. That just meant I had to become a bigger threat to them.

  I drew my gun as I rounded the corner, aimed at the rearmost creature, and pulled the trigger once, then twice. Two bullets struck it in its hindquarters, and it stumbled to the ground. The rest of the pack spun around to face me. I couldn’t see who their target had been, but it didn’t matter now. Their attention was entirely on me.

  I darted down the street, heading away from the night stalkers. I would find a good place to either lose them or fight them.

  As the night stalkers charged after me, I scrambled my way through alleys, taking every turn. There was no reason to fight a pack of monsters if I could just get away. Their footsteps grew a little quieter as I kept going.

  Emerging from an alley into a small parking lot, I spotted a broken window that led into an old sandwich shop. I vaulted over the ledge and ducked behind the wall.

  They shrieked, and they sounded right on top of me. I chanced a peek over the wall.

  The pack of night stalkers had reached the parking lot and fanned out as they searched for me, sniffing at the air.

  I was lucky that the sandwich place still had the lingering scent of food, though it was tinged with rot. Hopefully, it would mask my own smell. I was sweating after the run, and if they picked that out from the other odors, they’d know where I was.

  One of the creatures plodded toward me across the parking lot, looking at the ground. It paused at one of my footprints in the gravel, and then looked toward the building where I was. Clever nasty bastard.

  It strode toward me, its shoulders moving with the powerful grace of a panther in one of those nature documentaries.

  I stayed low and pressed my back against the wall, listening to the creature’s soft footsteps. Each crunch brought it closer.

  A few moments later, I could hear its breathing. It hadn’t yet called to its friends, which was a relief.

  A quick huff of its snout, and it padded closer. It was just on the other side of the wall. I slipped my dagger from my belt.

  Then, the creature’s snout poked over the wall. A little farther, and it looked down at me.

  It opened its mouth to let out a shriek, but I lunged upward and caught it in the throat with my knife. A shower of gooey black blood sprayed down on top of me.

  At least I had been clean for almost half a day. I guess any day without getting covered in monster gore was just too boring for me.

  I glanced over the wall again. The remaining night stalkers started toward where their friend lay dead on the ground.

  Five on one were bad odds.

  Staying low, I crouch walked past a bunch of small tables and a mural of rolling hills to the back of the restaurant. Droplets of night stalker gore trailed behind me as I worked my way through the kitchen, and then out the back door. I’d definitely need a long, hot shower and a nap after this. Too damn bad that it was still only the beginning of my night.

  Just in case, I pulled a dumpster over to block the exit.

  A night stalker chase hadn’t been exactly what I wanted to do, but I hoped that whoever had been following me learned their lesson and left.

  As I continued on my journey and approached the Falls, it brought back the memory of when I had gotten my powers. I had been tricked into coming into the Void to search for a missing person, but it
had been a trap. In the end, I had been bitten by a night stalker and had used an experimental antidote David had given me, in case I was reckless enough to need it. It hadn’t exactly worked perfectly, but it had stopped me from turning into a night stalker, and I was grateful for that. The side effect was that I had absorbed some of their traits, and was now faster, stronger, and had much better senses.

  Unfortunately, “Night Stalker Woman” didn’t really roll off the tongue.

  I jogged my way up the road, with the cries of the night stalkers still sounding behind me as they searched for me. A metallic slam clanged as they were apparently trying to get through the door I had blockaded.

  Finally, I reached the Falls.

  I was nearly on top of the dot on my tablet.

  There, in the center of the Void, right next to the Falls, someone had constructed some sort of camp surrounded by sheet metal walls with a number of canvas roofs peeking over the top. It wasn’t too large, maybe one-hundred feet on each side, but it had four guard towers, one at each corner, and they each appeared to have two guards. Another few guards were posted at the entrance. The walls were high enough to block someone from seeing inside, though in the Void, that was almost pointless. A taller inner wall encompassed a smaller area at the center of the compound.

  But I still knew what was within those walls. They had set up their compound around the exact spot where the portal had formed. The portal that had let in the Void and the darkness that had spread over everything. I didn’t know what they were doing with it, but it couldn’t be good.

  And I needed to get inside.

  CHAPTER 17

  I gazed down the slope that led toward the compound that surrounded the portal in the heart of the Void. What awaited me as I went inside, I had no idea. But I needed to find out. If I had any chance of figuring out who this Necromancer was and how and why he was resurrecting night stalkers and people like Amari, I would need to chance getting up close to the thing that had started the spread of the darkness in the first place.

  From the guard towers that sat on the corners of the compound, spotlights swiveled back and forth, illuminating the terrain around the walls. The beams were duller than they otherwise would have been, their light swallowed by the oppressive weight of the Void.

  Over my shoulder and up the road, the rumble of engines sounded. Several sets of headlights wound their way toward me.

  I dropped down, hiding beneath a small rise near the road leading into the Falls Park area. Who could be coming into this part of the Void? Someone with business with the Necromancer? I guess even mad scientists needed supplies and groceries. Whoever was making the deliveries was sure to be charging a premium for the dangerous trips.

  As the vehicles drew closer, they were clearly doing pretty well. A couple of their trucks were outfitted with heavy guns, similar to what Jack had been using with his crew, though their vehicles were different colors from Jack’s, and the license plates didn’t match.

  Along with the pickup gun trucks, a trio of old moving trucks rumbled on into the parking area, occupying the middle of the caravan.

  From my hiding spot, I watched as they trailed their way toward the compound, taking their time along the dark road. They reached the entrance and stopped while the guards stepped up to the vehicles.

  A person in the lead truck held out a hand, holding some kind of identification. They spoke in low voices that I couldn’t quite pick out from where I was up the hill. Then, the guards waved them into the camp.

  The convoy of vehicles pulled through the gate, the guards eyeing each one as they passed. As soon as the final truck entered, the guards pulled the gate shut and reassumed their posts.

  I needed to get inside, and I also wanted to know who the hell was taking their stuff to them. Three trucks could carry a lot of equipment for a relatively small encampment.

  I crept my way around the park, not heading directly for the walls, but spiraling my way toward them, keeping behind the trees as best as I could. I remembered that my vision in the darkness was likely much better than theirs, but they still could hear me if I made a false step, or they could spot me if they happened to turn their spotlights in my direction.

  One of the towers they were using had been the old observation deck that had overlooked the park. I remembered making a few trips out to the Falls as a kid, and then later as a cop, and hiking up those steps to gaze out at the beautiful waterfalls that rumbled through the river nearby. The bridge across the Falls was just outside the compound.

  I headed toward the river and dropped down into the small canyon the river had carved over its lifetime. The series of small waterfalls cast a chill spray into the air. While the quartz was slippery with mist from the water, I could use the short rocky walls to shield myself from the view of the guards.

  They probably assumed nobody could see well enough to navigate the river rocks, and night stalkers weren’t exactly the right shape to clamber around down here.

  Not that it made it easy.

  I slid my way along a narrow ledge just above one of the roaring waterfalls, and then along the short cliff side under the bridge.

  The falls may only be ten-feet high each, but it would still hurt like a bitch to fall into them.

  Now almost to the edge of the compound, I found a path up the slick rock walls. I climbed up, taking my time to find good spots for my hands and feet.

  As I neared the top of the short cliff, I started rushing and misjudged a handhold. My grip slipped from the smooth, wet rock. I slid down the steep rock face, catching myself on a ledge, but knocking a rock off it in the process. It clattered to the ground below.

  “What was that?” asked a guard with a slightly squeaky voice from the nearest tower.

  Hugging the cliff face, I held my breath as the spotlight swiveled over my head, lighting up the bridge and the wall of the river on the other side.

  “Did you hear something?” asked the voice again.

  “Hmm, I thought so, too,” said someone with a bit of a lower, gravelly voice. “You see anything out there?”

  The spotlight moved around a bit more, slowly scanning the river. “Not that I can tell.”

  “Hmm, maybe just some poor creature trying to get a drink of water.”

  “I don’t think animals typically get drinks near waterfalls.”

  “Yeah, but maybe they do now just to get away from the damned night stalkers. If it was me, I’d rather take my chances with the water than with those monsters.”

  “Maybe you’re right. But I don’t see anything, and I haven’t heard anything else.”

  The spotlight swiveled away but remained close to the river.

  The guards were on alert now.

  “You think someone followed the convoy here?” asked the squeaky voice. “Maybe someone who thought they could get an easy score?”

  “You’ve seen the weapons those guys have, right? Anyone who goes after them would have to be crazy, desperate, or probably both.”

  “Maybe, but with what’s inside those trucks, it might be worth it.”

  “Ha, perhaps, but I’ll stick with the critter theory.”

  I waited a moment, but the guards remained silent.

  Letting out a pent-up breath, I made my way back to the top of the cliffside, and then clambered over and crouched behind the trunk of the nearest tree. I was almost to the walls. I could probably jump over them but couldn’t risk the guards seeing me.

  Thanks to my fall, they were still going to be a bit on edge, despite their chatter trying to talk themselves out of it.

  I searched the ground and found a good-sized rock that filled the palm of my hand. I hefted it up and down, its solid weight encouraging me that it would fit my purpose.

  I took a deep breath, focused on the wall several yards from where I was, and then chucked the rock as hard as I could against it. The stone clattered against the metal wall, rattling it for a moment.

  “Shit,” said the guard with the younger
voice.

  The spotlight swiveled toward that section of the wall.

  That was my chance. I sprinted over the remaining yards between me and the fence, sank into a low crouch, and then launched myself upward. I leapt over the fence, clearing it by a good foot or so.

  A guard with a dark jacket and neatly trimmed hair stood with his back to me, taking a smoke break, right where I was about to land.

  His head started to turn toward me, his cigarette dangling from his lips. Good thing my reflexes were faster than his. As I came down toward him, I braced myself for the impact and kicked him square in the back.

  He fell into the mud with a soft “Oof.”

  I scrambled toward him, wrapping my arm around him and muffling his mouth as I squeezed his neck. He kicked at me and pounded his fists on the ground as I held the sleeper hold. I didn’t want to kill him, but if he kept making noise, he would draw the attention of the other guards. As I held him, I hauled him into a nearby empty tent. The seconds crawled by until his legs finally stopped kicking, and he fell unconscious. I shoved him onto an unused cot, and then went back out into the camp, crouching next to the canvas wall of the tent.

  Shit. That could have gone better. I already had to take out one of the guards, and if they went looking for their buddy, they’d know something was up.

  Around me, a row of five canvas tents had been erected between the outer walls and the taller inner walls that surrounded the center of the compound, which I assumed surrounded the portal.

  I had never actually seen the portal. The last time I had been in Falls Park, it had been before I had been enhanced with my night vision and had only had a shitty flashlight. Getting that close had been idiotic, and I had paid the price.

  And now, based on the blinking dot on my tablet, I’d need to get close again. I would have to sneak my way around the edge of the compound, and then find an entrance into the central part, all while evading the guards.

  But I was also curious about what was in those trucks, and who might be dropping them off. What kind of crew would brave the Void to deliver supplies? Might just be food, but I had to know for sure. It might tell me something important about what kind of operation the Necromancer had.