Eternal Void (Isabella Espinoza Book 2)

by K Hanson

  Inside, I strode toward a cluster of tents with three small ones across from a larger one.

  I turned to the guard. “I’ll keep an eye on her and look around this part of the camp. You guys look around elsewhere.”

  I needed to distract them enough to get inside that central area. That is where I was sure we’d find this Necromancer. Why he made his lair right next to the portal, I was very curious to learn.

  The guard hesitated, and then stumbled off, glancing back at me once.

  Not like he left me exactly alone, though. The guys in the nearest guard tower stared down at me with their guns drawn.

  “I’m just going to set her down in here, then go through these tents,” I called up to them.

  One of them nodded.

  I slid into one small tent and lay Amari on the ground, where I hoped nobody would disturb her.

  Before I left her, I whispered in her ear. “You’re doing great. Just stay here, and I’ll be back soon.”

  I crossed into the larger tent, with a couple of cots and a dark gray desk that dominated the rear center of the interior. Hopefully, something in there would help me keep the guards distracted. A pack sat next to each cot, but as I dug through them, they only had clothes and personal effects such as a picture of a woman and a pocket watch with “Love, Dad” engraved on the back. I went to the desk and pulled open the drawers. In the top drawer, I found a pair of handheld radios.

  I had my distraction.

  I turned each of them on and slipped them into my jacket pockets.

  “Nothing in there,” I called as I left the tent.

  One of the guards in the tower gave me a lazy wave, then they both turned back to face the outside.

  I went across into another tent and planted one of the radios under a cot, turning the volume on high.

  When I left the tent, the guards were still looking away. I meandered my way back to Amari, crouched down, and made a soft coughing noise into the radio. In the corner tent, an echo of my cough sounded, amplified by the radio’s speaker.

  “There!” shouted one of the guards in the tower.

  A group of guards from across the camp dashed to the tent, surrounding it with guns drawn. One padded up to the entrance, then tossed the tent flap up.

  “We know you’re hiding in here,” he said in a commanding voice. “Come out now!”

  We had our chance, and we had to go while my distraction still worked.

  I pulled Amari up, and we sprinted over to the central wall. Behind a stack of wooden crates, a heavy steel gate was locked with a rusty padlock. I grabbed it and, gritting my teeth, yanked on it, popping it free from the doorway.

  Amari pushed the door open, and we slipped inside. Nobody was in there with us.

  Finally, we had managed to sneak our way into the inner part of the compound.

  “There’s no one over here,” called one of the guards back in the larger part of the compound. “Just a damn radio someone left on.”

  “Wait, where are the people we let in?” asked the voice of the head guard that had met me at the gate.

  It wouldn’t take long for them to guess where we had gone.

  Within, though, my feeling of triumph subsided. We were where we needed to be, but as I looked around, I didn’t think we wanted to be there at all.

  Instead of a building that might house the Necromancer, we found something much stranger and unsettling.

  For the first time, I actually saw the portal that had let in the darkness. It was a shimmering purple halo around an inky black, waving interior. Inside the blackness, I caught glimpses of some kind of landscape: a sliver of a gnarled tree, cracked ground, and a dark purple sky. Something, quite literally, not of this world. Two tones sounded in the air, a low rumble and a shrill noise just at the edge of my hearing.

  Around the portal, there were three towers, each about eight feet tall, with copper orbs on the end and a spiral of cables down from the top to the base. Each of the prongs siphoned a meandering tendril of purple energy from the portal. From the base of each of the siphons, more cables trailed toward the other side of the inner area, connecting to a larger tower with a switch for each cable at the base. I had caught a glimpse of this over the wall.

  I had to get a closer look at what all of this was doing. It couldn’t be good. I paced around the perimeter, keeping well away from the portal and avoiding going between the prongs as I approached the taller tower.

  The familiar logo with an A on top of a W stood out on one side. Another gift from Arkwright to the world. I didn’t know exactly what the purpose of the whole setup was, but I guessed that it was related to the control devices they were selling. Were they somehow using the energy of the void portal to control the night stalkers?

  Whatever it was for, I needed to destroy it. Nobody should have that kind of technology.

  The only real question was how to demolish it without bringing a ton of heat from the guards down on Amari and me.

  CHAPTER 21

  I stared at the portal, trying to determine what to do next. That thing had let in all of the darkness and monsters that were now plaguing our world. There had been a number of such portals scattered across Earth, yet I knew of nobody who had ever crossed through it. Certainly, nobody who had tried it and survived. And from the glimpses I got in the inky blackness of the portal, it didn’t look like anywhere a person should go.

  We had to shut this down.

  The guards outside hadn’t figured out where we were quite yet, but if we started taking down the siphons and the tower, they would be on top of us in a hurry. We had to hold them back until we could disable the energy siphons. After that, I didn’t have a plan. But, if the siphons truly were connected to the night stalker control devices, destroying them could prevent another night stalker attack like the one that had hit Cathedral Hill. With the latest shipment of collars from Arkwright, the Necromancer and his people could use them at any time once they put them on the monsters. I couldn’t let that happen.

  I pulled over a large, heavy crate from the corner and blocked the door. We were lucky in that it opened inward, so at least we could barricade it.

  Next, we somehow had to take out the two guards in the towers that looked over this central courtyard area. We had managed to avoid their gaze as we entered the gate, as their attention had been on the search for the unknown person who had attacked their guard, but they had already noticed we had disappeared. If we started knocking down these devices that were next to the portal, that would get their attention real fast.

  Without words, I caught Amari’s eyes and pointed toward the guard in the tower nearest to us, nodding her in that direction. She gave me a quick nod to tell me she understood and crept away. As for me, I went toward the guard tower in the opposite corner.

  The mud squished under my boots, and I placed my steps with care so that I didn’t make too much noise. Eventually, I reached the base of the ladder that stretched up the side of the tower and started climbing. The metal rungs were cold and slick with moisture that sprayed into the air from the falls. It forced me to take my time as I ascended, gripping each rung so that I wouldn’t slip.

  When I was nearly three-quarters of the way up, a rusty rung creaked as I put my weight on it. I halted, holding my breath.

  Footsteps sounded on the wooden floor of the tower above me. The guard had heard. But I couldn’t hide here, and he would see me if I went back down. The only option was to just keep climbing.

  I scrambled my way up as the footsteps came closer to the top of the ladder.

  A face appeared just above the floor, and the guard’s eyes went wide as he saw me. His mouth opened as he started to call for help, but I sprang up and clamped my hand over his mouth, spinning him around and holding him against me.

  He struggled against my grasp, but he didn’t have any chance against my strength. Still, he was doing his best to make as much noise as possible. His feet hit the floor beneath us, making banging sounds that see
med to echo around the courtyard, at least to my sensitive ears.

  I crouched down and pulled him down with me to minimize the chance of someone seeing us. Even so, one of the guards in one of the outer towers could see us if they just turned around at the wrong time. I kept my eye on the nearest tower as I held my arm across the guard’s throat.

  The guard across from me paced back and forth on the top of their tower. Their head swiveled this way and seemed to look straight at us. The guard paused. Had they seen what I was doing? I tried to sink even lower, getting the railing between us and the possible offending guard.

  Finally, the guard I held went unconscious, and I lowered him to the floor of the tower without any additional sound. I glanced over to see how Amari was doing.

  I was already done, and she was still climbing her way up the ladder.

  It had been a lot to ask her to take a guard out on her own, but I couldn’t count on taking them both out on my own without them seeing what was happening.

  She was taking her time, which was good.

  If she needed my help, I’d join her, but for the moment, trying to hurry across was more likely to result in extra noise and ruin the element of surprise.

  She reached the top of the ladder and started toward the guard. He pivoted toward her, but before he could shout for help, she lunged forward and stabbed him just below the sternum. She held her hand over his mouth, lowering him to the ground.

  She had just killed a person without hesitating. I didn’t know whether to be impressed or concerned about her. Either way, it was a conversation for later.

  We both climbed down from the towers and met near the three prongs and the tower.

  “All right,” I said, “Let’s see what kind of damage we can do.”

  “What’s the right way to go about this?” Amari asked.

  “What? You’ve never shut down strange devices that were drawing energy from another dimension before?” I asked, giving her half a smile.

  “I can’t say that I have.”

  “Let’s start by cutting the cable to the tower,” I suggested. “Go over to it and pull the switch to the off position, then I’ll slash the cable. You still have my knife?”

  Amari passed my knife back to me, then hurried over to the trio of switches on the tower.

  From outside the taller walls of the inner section of the base, a voice shouted, “Nobody over here. You think they went inside the inner area?”

  “Next to the portal? They’d have to be crazy.”

  “Check it just to be sure.”

  We needed to act fast.

  Amari yanked the leftmost switch down to off. The low hum that had been filling the air subsided, though the higher-pitched noise remained. The signal still blinked on my wrist. It hadn’t been coming from the tower. Nonetheless, I should cut the cable.

  I knelt down and sawed through the tough rubber, and then the copper within. It was a difficult cut, but the steel of my knife eventually ate its way through the metal.

  The signal may still be on, but at least they wouldn’t be able to use the equipment again, and we had disabled something important for the Necromancer. Hopefully.

  “Shit, they shut down the tower,” someone yelled from outside.

  “They broke the padlock,” someone else said. “They’re in there for sure.”

  The door rattled as they tried to push it open, but it just banged into the solid crate that stood in the way.

  The purple energy that was flowing into the siphons halted, flickering away now that there was nowhere for the energy to go.

  “Let’s destroy the siphons, too,” I said.

  “How?” She shrugged, then gestured at the prongs. “They’re planted in the ground.”

  I studied them.

  Well, there was always the brute force method.

  I took a few steps toward the nearest siphon, grabbed it around the circumference, and pulled. I dug my fingers into the dirt that surrounded the base, grabbing the metal lip that sat on the ground. I pulled up and up, tearing it from the part that had it anchored to the ground. With a metallic groan, it finally pulled free with a twang.

  I tossed the prong to the side, then moved the next one. I shook my arms loose and started to pull the second siphon from the ground.

  Another slam against the door into the inner courtyard. This sounded like something solid, not just a shoulder. It banged again, a rhythmic beat against the door. It hit the crate each time, and it moved a fraction of an inch with each strike. Eventually, they would get through if they kept it up.

  I let go of the prong I was working on and hauled the broken one over to the crate, leaning it so that it wedged between the crate and the ground. At least that would give a little more resistance.

  As the guards continued to try to force their way inside, I pulled each of the prongs from the ground and then propped them as supports against the crate.

  Still, we were stuck in a losing battle as they had us under siege. This tiny square wouldn’t hold out for long.

  On the other side of the courtyard, opposite the door, gunshots sounded, along with several pings off the side of the walls.

  “What the hell are you doing?” asked an angry voice. “You’re going to kill us with ricochets.”

  “Just thought it could help us get inside,” said a younger voice.

  “Well, don’t. You’re being an idiot.”

  Luckily, the kid had been wrong. The bullets had just dented the side a bit, but they were going to find a way in before long.

  I scanned the walls again, searching desperately for an exit that wasn’t there. More footsteps and shouts surrounded us. The only ways out were through the gate or over the walls. Either way, we’d have to go through the guards.

  “Amari, we have to try to fight them off.”

  Her eyes widened. “How?”

  “The towers,” I said, gesturing between them. “We each take one and shoot down at them. Use the rifles the guards dropped.”

  Before she could reply, I turned and ran over to the tower nearest to the door and clambered up the ladder. When I reached the top, I picked up the gun of the fallen guard, hurried to the side of the tower, and started firing on the guards trying to get in.

  My bullets struck a couple of them, and they collapsed to the ground. The rest of the guards scattered, a few of them hauling their buddies behind cover.

  The guard towers on my side of the courtyard each held two guards, and they pivoted toward me, firing across the way at me.

  I knelt for cover behind the low wall around the top of the tower, firing at the closest guard. With a couple of shots, he collapsed, then rolled onto his back.

  The other guards, both across from me and below, peppered my position with gunfire. I sank below the wall, completely out of view as I reloaded.

  An alarm blared around the camp, with the shouts of the guards coordinating their assault on our tiny fortress. They knew they had us surrounded and that all they had to do was keep the pressure on. We didn’t have a hope of victory.

  We weren’t going to be able to take out all of them. More guards charged out into the camp, taking cover and firing at me as they advanced again toward the door. A couple of times, I tried to pop up, but nearly instantly regretted it as shots pinged around me.

  I glanced over my shoulder at how Amari was doing, just as a bullet struck her shoulder, and then tore through her back next to her shoulder blade. Another shot burst out the center of her back. She dropped the gun, staggering back, and tumbled over the low railing to the ground below, hitting with a sickening crunch. She didn’t move.

  No. Shit, no.

  I leapt off my tower and dashed across to her, where her broken body lay in a heap. Her head and limbs were at unnatural angles, blood pooling beneath her far too rapidly. The kinds of injuries and wounds she had were almost certainly fatal.

  I pressed my fingers to her neck. The pulse gave a weak whimper of a beat, then stopped. Amari was dead. I kne
lt next to her, flipping her over and pulling her head onto my lap. I should never have let her come with me into the Void. It was far too dangerous, even for me, and I had gotten her killed yet again.

  I couldn’t lose another friend. I was already to blame for what happened to the chief. Now, I had done it to another person I cared about.

  As I held Amari’s limp body in my arms, the pounding continued at the door. The people outside were going to get in. It was only a matter of time. The crates and supports would only hold out for so long. With each hit, they moved further and further inward. I could leave Amari and try to hold them or finish them off from the tower, but it no longer seemed to matter. I’d rather just go out holding the person I had failed.

  Yet, as I held her, the blood slowed sooner than it should have. Then, her neck and limbs started to straighten out, the bones clicking back into place. The wound in her shoulder and chest shrank until they closed entirely.

  Holy shit. She was actually resurrecting in front of me, healing from a fatal wound that would have killed even me. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed fresh life, warmth returning to her cheeks.

  Her eyes popped open, and her hands clutched her heart, her shoulder, feeling where her wounds were.

  She winced. “Oh God, it happened again.”

  “I saw it. Amari, are you okay? You got hit pretty hard.”

  “I’m okay now, but god, that hurt,” she said, pushing herself upright to sit. “Way more than last time.” She looked over at the door, where the guards had almost opened enough of a gap for someone to slip inside. “They’re almost here, Isabella. What do we do?”

  We could keep trying to fight back. Or, we could come up with a distraction and try to jump over the walls with Amari on my back. All of that seemed like it would be doomed to failure.

  But there was another way out. A way that was crazy any other time, and maybe even still was. However, being in the courtyard with the portal meant there was always a way out. And the signal still came from that exact spot. The Necromancer was on the other side of that portal, and it may be our only chance to track him down for real.