The End of Darkness (15 page)

She sighed, closing her eyes and pressing her mouth to his chest. Her hands came up, gripping his sides. “Yes, yes, yes. I want that.”

“The sooner we get out of here, the more time we have to put distance between us and your husband.”

“I'll take the money. I know where he's probably hidden it.”

“Don't give him another reason to hunt you down. If you, Erica, and I are gone, he'll be pissed, but he probably won't bother taking the time and trouble to chase us down.”

“You're right.” She pulled the keys out of her pocket. “And he'll be even less likely if I leave her.” She nodded toward Erica. “There won't be two of you out there to trouble him.”

Fear gripped Erica's heart. Magnus had inadvertently given Lanna a good reason to leave her behind. Lanna unlocked his ankles first, giving Magnus a chance to meet Erica's gaze. He kept his expression blank, giving her the slightest nod. 

Lanna was watching him as the second cuff opened. She sprang up and reached for the final cuff around his wrist. Erica couldn't breathe as the key turned in the hole and the cuff snapped open.

Magnus groaned as he pulled his arm down and rubbed his hand. 

Lanna turned to Erica. “I'm sorry I can't keep my promise. Then again you didn't live up to your end of the deal eith—”

Magnus grabbed Lanna's arm and snapped the cuff around her wrist.

“Sorry that I won't be able to run off with you.” He grabbed the keys where they'd fallen and released Erica. “You had me until you were willing to leave Erica here to face the wrath of your husband.”

Erica could barely breathe with how fast everything had changed. 

Lanna shook her hand. “What about me? You're leaving me to his wrath!”

“Yeah, I'm sorry about that, too.” And he did look sorry. “But I can't take a chance that you'll alert him or the others.”

Lanna screamed every expletive as Magnus unlocked the cell, then relocked it behind them. They ran for the door, and Magnus turned the round wheel to open it. The door screeched as it opened, then clanged shut behind them. 

Erica felt the same way she did when the roller coaster took its first plunge, her stomach shooting up to her throat. 

Lights led down a long tunnel that went both ways. Oblong white boxes were mounted along the walls but didn't seem to be lights. 

Magnus drew them closer to one of the boxes and patted the surface. “They said that what was in this tunnel was going to blow the area to kingdom come. It doesn't look like anything.”

She drifted a few feet in the other direction. “They go this way, too, at least as far as I can see. But something feels weird here.”

He felt it, too. “Not Darkness. This isn't heavy like that. It's vibrating right through my body.”

She backed up, bumping into him. “Let's go in the other direction.”

He gave her no argument. “Whatever these boxes are, they were installed recently. The lights are dusty, and the boxes are clean.”

“I don't like it. Someone has calculated the distance between them. See the orange marks?” She pointed to the florescent marks at floor level.

“If they're explosives, they'd act like dominoes, each one setting off the next.”

She trembled at the thought of being in the tunnel when that happened. “And the timeline's been moved up. How do we stop this?”

“We find one of those escape hatches and alert the authorities. We can't do this on our own.”

They came across a metal ladder attached to the wall that went up into what looked like a dark hole. Magnus climbed up, and she heard his grunts of effort.

“I can't see a damned thing,” he said from some distance up. “Nothing I feel turns or opens.” He came back down. “Let's keep going. We'll try every one we come across. One's bound to open.”

They had a little time before Copeland and Nester returned, but once they did, they'd come after them. And so would a very pissed-off Lanna. Twenty minutes passed before they came across another metal ladder. Magnus climbed up and had the same kind of luck.

“How long does this tunnel go on for?” she whispered.

“I'm more worried about what's at the other end.”

CHAPTER 14

Nester followed Copeland into the house, stomping his feet. 

“Nester, stop acting like a child.”

“Stop treating me like one. 
I
 wanted to pull off the robbery. I missed out on the first ones—”
 

“That's your fault. If you hadn't been out there snorting Darkness, you would have been part of them.”

Copeland didn't understand. Just because he was cold and empty didn't mean everybody was. He treated his beautiful wife like a secondary citizen, and he treated Nester like a child. Nester had never experienced such power and exhilaration as when he fed the Darkness in him with more. Soon it would be gone, blown back to their dimension, so he had to take in as much as he could now. 

“Lanna!” Copeland yelled as he headed into the back bedroom with the satchel. 

Nester wondered if his brother planned to double cross him, using the excuse that he had been the one to procure the money. He'd given Nester permission to go off and kill as much as he wanted when they split off from the group. Like he was ready to get rid of him. Wouldn't it be nice to be on his own without having to answer to his brother? As long as he had money to survive.

“She's probably down in the basement with her puppets,” Nester said, creeping toward the door and listening. He had read some of her books, though he'd never admit it. What the people did in them was interesting. He might like to enact some bondage and torture. “I don't hear anything.”

Copeland opened the door. “Lanna, your toys have to go now.”

Nester followed, hoping to glimpse something sordid and deliciously erotic. He slammed into Copeland because he'd stopped midway down the stairs.

“What the…” Copeland took the rest of the stairs.

Nester couldn't contain the giggle that erupted. “Well, well, lookee here.”

Copeland shot him an irritated look, clearly missing the humor of finding his wife cuffed and the prisoners out of sight. 

“Don't even start with me,” she said, though Nester could see the fear of Copeland's retribution in her haughty expression. 

“Where are they?” Copeland asked, about to turn back toward the stairs. “We have to find them before they report us to the authorities.”

“They went into the tunnel,” she said.

“The 
tunnel
?”
 

“So you have nothing to worry about,” she said. 

“Nothing? You stupid bitch, we have even more to worry about if the others find them.”

She flinched. “We could run now.” 

“We run right before we're to report to the finestra, so they don't have time to look for us.” Copeland tossed the keys to Nester. “Unlock her and meet me in the tunnel. We have to find them.” He opened the door and disappeared in the darkness within. 

“Does that mean I can hunt them down?” Nester asked, rubbing his hands together.

“Yes,” he called out, his voice echoing.

Nester turned to Lanna. “I think I'll make you wait. You've been a very naughty girl. Tsk tsk.” He jammed the keys into his pocket and ran into the tunnel.

In retrospect, going into the tunnel hadn't been the best idea. No doubt Erica was thinking the same as they walked for an hour and a half, trying every escape hatch they came upon to no avail. Having the information they needed was useless if they couldn't get out to tell someone. Returning to the house wasn't an option. Copeland and Nester were probably back and on their way.

Magnus and Erica approached another one of those damned escape hatches, and he wondered if they should even try.

“Thanks for not leaving me there,” Erica said in a soft voice.

“Why are you thanking me? Like there was a choice?”

She kept her gaze trained ahead. “I've only known you for a day. You're a phenomenal liar. You could have been lying to me as easily as you were to her.” She didn't mince words, this one.

“You're right. You have no idea what kind of man I am. And the truth is, I did leave a woman locked in a cell knowing her husband's going to be angry as hell with her. I don't feel good about that part, but I do what I have to when it comes to my survival. I spent my whole life training to kill a man who was trying to kill my family. Now that I've finally gotten to the point where I can live, my life is once again ripped out of my hands. So I would lie, I would screw a woman, and I'd kill to get that chance. But I'd never leave an innocent woman to die.”

“But I'm not innocent.”

“Yes, you are.”

She wasn't like most of the women he'd been with, fun-loving, light-hearted, out to have a good time. But the two women who had drawn him deeply were troubled, harboring dark, dangerous secrets. 

Jessie. He didn't feel the painful tug when he thought of her. He didn't feel exactly that with Erica either, but he did feel something. A tug, aye. Erica would never be a fun-loving toss-in-the-sack. But he needed to make her smile. To fill her big blue eyes with something other than distrust, uncertainty, or the shadows that dwelled there.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“Like what?” He really wanted to know, as he had no idea what expression revealed.

“Like you want to save my soul.”

Ah, that one. “It's just that we might die in this tunnel, and I've never made you smile. Or sigh with pleasure.”

She did smile, though it was more of a Mona Lisa one. “You did.”

“I did? Which one?”

“I'm not telling. You'll get a big head. A big
ger
 head.”
 

He threw his head back, stifling his laugh. “My head's not that big, you know. It's the curls.”

He sensed it coming up behind them—Darkness. Instinctively, he pushed her behind him as he spun to face it. Through the gloom of the tunnel, a black form raced up at the speed of Darkness. It took him over in response, transforming him into a mountain lion. But not quite fast enough. Nester slammed into him, throwing them both against the wall. 

Magnus was ready for the impact, tightening his form and leaping up to attack. He tore his fangs into Nester's shoulder. Lanna was right; Nester wasn't any particular form, just vaguely the shape of an animal. He definitely had the one. Nester growled and snarled and whipped his head back and forth, his fangs more like a saber tooth tiger's.

Magnus stole a glimpse at Erica, who was searching for a weapon. He needed to dispatch Nester before his cohorts arrived. By the footsteps pounding in the distance, they were on their way. 

Nester bit Magnus's thigh, tearing away his dark flesh. It hurt, as Jessie's dad had warned, but it was only fatal if his opponent kept tearing bits away before he could mend himself. Magnus would try the strategy on Nester. The thought of Erica, of protecting her, gave him the ferocity of the Tasmanian Devil.

Erica was warming her ability, her palm glowing brighter than her earlier attempt. 

“Don't use it unless you have to,” Magnus warned. 

She wore an expression of worry, obviously hearing the footsteps, too. 

Nester ducked away from Magnus to lunge at her. She dodged, but not quickly enough to evade being shoved off balance. Before Nester could try again, Magnus jumped on his back. Nester rammed him into the wall again and again, trying to dislodge him. Magnus drew his claws across Nester's throat, like that bastard had done to him days ago. Of course, Nester wasn't a mere human, so one swipe wasn't going to do it.

The sound of Copeland's labored breathing was louder than his footsteps. The tunnel lights dimly lit his approaching form. Now this was going to get tricky. Nester was enough to fight. Copeland had a weapon as deadly as Erica's, but he had more juice behind it. 

Copeland stopped a few yards away, bending over to catch his breath. No sign of Lanna. 

“Get this son of a bitch,” Nester said. “I want the woman.”

Magnus kept his hold so his brother couldn't Flare him without getting Nester, too. But that left Erica open. As Copeland straightened and flexed his hand, a white light flashed around him. Arcs of lightning shot out, strong enough that electricity prickled across Magnus's skin and lifted the hairs on his arms. Erica held her hand outstretched, her face in a grimace.

A glow emanated from Copeland's palm, but he was crumbling. His knees gave way, sending him to the ground. He arched, his eyes bulging. He wasn't the only one screaming in pain. Magnus tore his gaze from the now seizing man to Erica, who was contorted, eyes squeezed shut and mouth in a grimace. When Copeland collapsed, so did she. 

“Erica!” Magnus couldn't go to her without releasing Nester. 

Nester was staring at his brother's body in shock. He slipped out of Magnus's grasp and went for Erica's still form.

Magnus headed him off, throwing him several yards where he skidded across the floor. He heard more footsteps running toward them. Lanna? No, from the other direction. Not good. Nester got to his four feet and stared in the direction of the approaching footsteps. Then like a shadow, he tore off toward the house.

Erica was curled in a fetal position and crying in pain. He morphed back to man and dropped down beside her. “Shhh, baby, shhh. Someone's coming.”

He scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder. Dead weight. The words felt as heavy as she did. Her ability was killing her. He knew it was painful to use, but she'd never said anything about it debilitating her. Locating the ladder, he took the steps carefully, holding onto her with one hand, the railing with the other. He cleared the tunnel's ceiling, which put them in the shadows, and whispered for her to remain quiet. His arms were trembling from the effort to hold her and hold them in place as well. Especially with her shaking so badly. 

Two people ran up right beneath him, and he heard a man whisper, “Back. There's a body.”

Erica started whimpering, her breathing shallow. Hell, they were a sitting target up there now that they'd revealed their presence. Magnus held her tight and dropped down, ready to Become. He came face-to-face with Pope and a woman he didn't recognize.