Unhidden (The Gatekeeper Chronicles Book 1) (3 page)

She struck as fast as a viper. I felt a piercing sting in my neck before it began to numb, the sensation radiating out from the wound and spreading throughout my body as her venom pumped quickly through my bloodstream. My body instantly went slack, and I toppled onto my side.

Anger overwhelmed the fear. I sure as hell wasn’t going to go down without taking Darko with me. Although it took considerable will to move my quickly numbing fingers, I fumbled clumsily at a vest pocket. It took a few tries, but I finally managed to grasp the small, green box and pull it out. With the last of my strength, I squeezed the trigger. The C-4 explosives I had planted in each room of the mansion before my capture detonated with a deafening boom. The entire west wing of the building was transformed into an inferno.

The force of the blast threw the girl backward, and I heard a sickening crunch as she slammed into the stone wall surrounding the compound. I wanted to smile at having wiped both Darko and the child creature from the face of the earth, but my facial muscles wouldn’t respond.

Unfortunately, my satisfaction was ended prematurely. Watching the flames as choking, black smoke poured forth from every window, a lone figure emerged from the front door of the mansion. The figure moved through the devastation unscathed, as if surrounded by an impenetrable bubble. Sparks appeared in the air close to the figure, ripples spreading out from them. I realized that Jason was shooting, and the bullets were bouncing off some sort of shield.

Whoever, whatever it was, approached me purposefully.

As it came nearer, I groaned inwardly, my lips and vocal cords no longer able to make a sound. Darko. How was he doing this?

Before I could contemplate the strange sight further, he reached me and knelt down. Putting his face close to mine, he whispered, “You have done well, Miss Hayes. Now we shall see who you really are.” At that, my consciousness shut down, and I plunged into a deep well of peaceful silence.

A
dull ache crowded my consciousness, nudging me awake. The more I tried to ignore it, the more insistent it became, until the throbbing was the only thing I could think about. I tried to take my mind off it by inventorying the rest of my aches and pains.

My face was swollen and cheeks stiff with dried blood from a cut on my temple. A piercing burn on my neck screamed at me as blood pulsed through my jugular. The worst was my shoulder as it swelled within my constrictive body armor. A small movement of my arm confirmed that someone had pushed the dislocated bone back into its socket, and I was forever grateful I had been unconscious when it had been done. Finally, rough hemp rope scratched and burned the sensitive skin of my wrists and ankles.

Despite the sweat trickling down my temple, my back felt cool. My fingertips found the unforgiving surface of polished stone. I was stretched out on a slab, tied down with the bonds that scratched my skin raw. They were well-knotted, leaving no room to wiggle my hands free.

Slippered feet shuffled along a bare floor, soft as the crinkling of tissue paper. I could make out the familiar creak of leather and buckles as well as the faint smell of gun oil. All of these sounds had a hollow, echoed quality to them as objects clinked and clattered while a sharp crash sounded close to my head. I tried hard not to wince and give away my awakening.

Dammit. How the hell had I gotten myself into this mess? More importantly, how the hell was I supposed to get myself out of it? Where were Daniel and Jason? If they had followed my orders back at the compound, they would have been outside the gates when I had been taken. I knew Jason had tried to save me from Darko by shooting at him yet couldn’t penetrate whatever was protecting him. It sounded pretty crazy to call it a “deflector shield”—that made me think of Star Trek.

The compound was probably a smoldering heap of ash now, so Darko must have moved me somewhere else. However, Daniel and Jason wouldn’t have allowed him to take me away in a vehicle without trying to stop it.

What if Darko had killed them? That would mean no one knew where I was and there would be no cavalry coming to the rescue. That thought was momentarily terrifying, until I quashed it. I had been in worse jams, although not by much, and I wasn’t about to give up without a fight.

I replayed every interaction I’d had with Darko since he had first approached me about this job back in New York, trying to find what I had missed. Daniel had dug deep into his background, using all of the electronic resources at his disposal, which were fairly considerable. It had all checked out.

Either Darko really was legit, or he had enormously vast resources to pull off a con on this scale. And to what end? What did he need from me? Sure, I was a soldier, a sniper, and quite talented at kicking ass—if I do say so myself—but there were plenty of other soldiers who were at or even above my level.

Other than my military skills, I didn’t have much that set me apart. I didn’t even have important connections that Darko could leverage. The best I had was a close contact in the U.S. Government’s Procurement Department, which was less than impressive or useful.

I lifted my eyelids just a crack so no one in the room would notice. It was difficult to make out many details through my lashes. All I could see without moving my head was a flat, featureless wall the color of sand. Opening my eyes fully, I got a complete picture of the absolutely shitty predicament I was currently stuck in.

I was in a small, rounded cave, lying opposite the opening. There were lit torches mounted in sconces every few feet along the wall. Their flickering glow cast eerie dancing shadows on the rough hewn stone. It was slightly cooler in the cave than it had been outside, but I was still covered in a sheen of sweat. It was entirely possible that the sweating was due to fear rather than humidity though.

On either side of the cave entrance stood two guards—human this time, or so they appeared. They were wearing standard issue camouflage and bulletproof vests, holding AK-47 assault rifles across their chests, fingers close to the triggers. I could see at least three more armed guards outside, patrolling by the entrance.

My eyes darted around the space, looking for monsters in the shadows. I would be at their mercy in my current condition, and I doubted they even knew what mercy meant. I had barely escaped the last ones with my life. If that little girl had wanted to kill me, she could have done so with no trouble at all. I desperately hoped I was surrounded only by your everyday human scum of the earth.

I shuddered involuntarily when my eyes landed on a hideous monstrosity in the room. A crone was busily moving around the stone slab I was tied to. She wore a tattered robe of deep black with the cowl turned down so I could get a good look at her unfortunate features. She looked like a creepy old woman from nightmares and horror films. Her face was deeply wrinkled and as pale as death. Her baggy eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with wet redness. One eye was enlarged and milky white, clearly blind, and her dirty, gray hair was sparse and stringy, sticking out of her pate in clumps. Her teeth were brown and crooked with gaps in places where many of them had rotted away.

Around her neck, she wore an amulet that immediately drew my attention away from her appearance. Hanging from a heavy chain rested a circle of gold. It had nicks and dents around the edges that hinted at significant use across generations. The gold was etched with swirls and shapes that weren’t recognizable to me as anything more than elaborate decoration. They enrobed an aquiline gem, the deep greens and blues of a tropical sea. In its heart, I thought I saw movements as subtle as smoke and shadow.

Vertigo overwhelmed me, the sensation of drowning in those watery depths, and I yanked my gaze away quickly. I was breathing heavily, my heart racing.

The old woman placed leaves, twigs, and powders upon smoldering coal briquettes in the bowls that were evenly spaced along my stone slab. They released the pungent odors of sandalwood, masala, cinnamon, and lavender. They weren’t unpleasant individually, but when the fragrances combined, it overwhelmed my senses, making me lightheaded and slightly nauseous. I took deep breaths to stave off the sensation that I was suffocating, yearning for fresh, cool air.

Just when I thought I had the nausea under control, Darko appeared at the cave’s entrance. He looked almost comically out of place in this dank cave, wearing his neatly tailored suit.

“Miss Hayes, I trust that you are comfortable?” He smirked, approaching my altar.

“Well, it’s no Ritz Carlton, and the bed is a bit firm, but as long as I get the free breakfast in the morning, I’m good,” I retorted in that same falsely pleasant tone.

“I do apologize for the less than luxurious accommodations, but I will make every effort to ensure you do not have to suffer these conditions for much longer. The Bruja has become very efficient at these ceremonies. After all, she has been officiating sacrifices and blood rituals for hundreds of years.” When he nodded his head toward the old woman in what looked like a sign of respect, she did nothing to acknowledge his complement.

“Oh, good. I feel better knowing an experienced professional is handling my blood sacrifice. Hey, since we are having such a pleasant conversation, why don’t you let me in on why you are doing all of this?”

He gave a brief chuckle. “Do you think this as a James Bond movie, Miss Hayes? Should I go off on a lengthy soliloquy, revealing all of my dastardly plans, buying you precious time until you are able to free yourself or until the cavalry arrives? None of those things are going to happen, so you may want to take this time to come to terms with your fate.”

Never!
I hissed in my head, startling myself with the ferocity of my own thoughts. I had been on the verge of falling prey to my fears until I had heard that single word.

I turned away from Darko so he couldn’t see the defiance in my eyes. I needed him and his goons to believe I was defeated. I brought forth crocodile tears and trembling lips.

He must have bought the act because he simply said to the Bruja, “It is time. Please begin.”

I took a deep breath. The clock had run down, and I was no closer to an escape plan than I had been when I awoke.

The Bruja stood over me, her arms held high, the sleeves of her robes sliding to the shoulders. Stick-thin arms were threaded through with blue veins. Her eyes lifted to the ceiling and her soft voice steadily became stronger and louder. At first, I thought she was speaking Spanish, but I knew a little Spanish and couldn’t make out anything of what she was saying.

She lowered her arms and reached into her robes, withdrawing a wicked-looking knife. It must have been twelve-inches long with a blade made of obsidian, so black it seemed to absorb the light around it. Its ornate handle was carved of jade, depicting a woman on her hands and knees with the obsidian blade protruding from her open mouth. The handle was tightly wrapped with a red, leather cord. I didn’t know the significance of the knife, but I could take a pretty good guess that it was some type of sacrificial weapon.

I stared wide-eyed at the object as the Bruja held it point down over my chest. Her chanting steadily grew to a crescendo while my heart palpitated rapidly and my breathing became so loud it drowned out all other sound in the room. My chest wrenched at the thought of that knife plunging into it. I desperately wanted to curl into a fetal position to protect myself; however, I was completely immobilized by the ropes.

Far too soon, the knife plunged downward. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to turn away, hoping death would come quickly.

The pain was sharp and searing … but I felt it on my wrist. I looked down at my arm, which was being held by the Bruja in a vice grip. She set the knife on the stone slab near my shoulder, apparently no longer needing it.

The cut was deep, maybe dangerously so, my blood flowing steadily as the Bruja collected it in a roughly-crafted clay bowl. The room spun and my head felt like it wanted to float off my shoulders.

A thought entered my sluggish brain that the bowl was filling up very quickly. She would need to hurry and grab another. Apparently, the Bruja decided one bowl was enough because she dropped my arm unceremoniously when it was full. I could feel the thick, warm liquid dripping off my fingertips.

She then lifted the bowl above her head with more chanting. I rubbed my eyes and forehead in an effort to clear away the cobwebs when it slowly dawned on me that my wrist was free. The Bruja had cut through my bonds when she had sliced into my wrist. I quickly dropped my arm again, hoping no one had noticed. The Bruja was still looking up to the ceiling, and the two guards were dutifully watching outside, ignoring the proceedings. Darko was intent on the bowl of blood in the Bruja’s hands, his eyes focused and shining.

She placed the bowl on the table next to me and removed the mesmerizing blue amulet from her neck, submerging it in my blood. Darko leaned in a little closer, his face alit with eager anticipation.

When the Bruja removed the amulet from the bowl, the stone absorbed my blood like a thirsty sponge. In a matter of seconds, every trace of blood was sucked into the heart of the gem, turning it from an aqua blue to a deep indigo.