Veiled Threat (20 page)

The bottom of the slide wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. Nope, it was a big old pond filled with water, a thick coating of some sort of oil on top. Erik hit first, displacing the oil, then Alex, then me.

My body sluiced under the surface and I closed my eyes, held my breath and wondered how much shit I would have clinging to me when I stood. There was nothing to stand on, no bottom to the pond that I felt. Breaking the surface I wiped my face, the oily substance sliding off.

I swam for the edge where Erik and Alex were pulling themselves out. “Demons are disgusting. Do I even want to know what this is?”

“It isn’t that bad. Left over food grease if I remember correctly.”

I grimaced. He reached down and pulled me out. Where we stood was a wide-open field of dead grass, acres and acres of dead grass and not much else. Like the demons decided to build their own terrarium inside the building.

“Alex, how’s the bracelet?”

He shook his whole body, sending a spray of water and food grease into the air. “Warmer.”

“Warmer than before?”

“Yuppy doody.”

Erik glanced down. “Timer from a necromancer?”

“Yes.” I nodded, Tracking Pamela. “And we’re running out of said time. We have to hurry.”

Pamela was close, real close. I almost called out to her. Of course, I should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as fending off a single, large demon bird.

From the field of dead grass, the ground humped upward.

“Erik?”

“This one best we run from. Drovers are not easy to kill, though it can be done. It would take more time than we have.”

Drovers. I tucked the name into the back of my head. “Run it is then.” I turned and bolted along the edge of the pond toward where the slide hung. There was a door behind the slide, the only one available. It would have to do.

Erik beat me to it and flung it open, stepping through. “Dungeons?”

“I’m guessing. To the right.”

He didn’t hesitate. “That would be it.”

We spoke as though we’d worked together for years, as if, hell, as if we understood one another in the way only two things can bring. Genetics and time. Since time was an obvious out, genetics it was.

Behind us, the drover let out a high-pitched
ping
that shook the ground. I couldn’t help but look back as Alex dove through the door after Erik.

Apparently the drover was like a giant earthworm, black like a night crawler, and there wasn’t one, but three. Each one would easily dwarf Blaz, which was saying something. They humped across the ground, their open mouths pits of row upon row of teeth, tentacles reaching out and tasting the ground ahead of them. Yeah, I could see killing them would be less than easy.

“Another day, bitches!” I gave them a wave and stepped through the doorway, shutting it behind us. “Tell me we don’t have to go out that way.”

“Depends.” Erik stood ahead of me, very still. “Don’t move. Either of you.”

Ah hell, what now?

There was nothing down the long hallways ahead of us. Or at least, nothing I could see.

Alex didn’t move but I saw him shiver and lift his paw up ever so slightly. “Hotter, hotter.”

Shit. “We don’t have time, Erik. Whatever it is, we have to go. So either you move, or I do.”

“Impetuous child.” He snapped a hand out in front of his body and in front of us.

Oh boy, I suddenly felt ill.

Like watching ink drops appear in water, images fuzzed into view. Tall and short, fat and thin, there was no conformity other than the fact that they all were non-corporeal.

Ghosts.

“Demon ghosts are bad. They are the evil spirits that come through the veil when called,” Erik said, his voice taking on the tone of a lecture, monotone and droning. “Don’t make eye contact, don’t touch them. They won’t touch you but they will try to spook you into running.”

“I no likes ghosts.” Alex pushed into my leg, his tremors traveling up through my body he shook so hard.

“Yeah, me neither, buddy. But we have to. Pamela and Milly need us. Close your eyes, and hang onto my belt.” I dropped a hand to him. This couldn’t be that hard. Hell, what could go wrong? I swallowed hard, my own body betraying me.

“Okee dokee,” he whispered, as he squeezed his eyes shut, pinching them so tight his whole face scrunched up.

“Rylee.”

“Erik.” I stared at his back, the base of his neck. It was one of the few spots I didn’t see ghosts staring back at me.

“Let’s go.” He stepped forward and I followed him, Alex clinging to the back of my belt, his claws brushing against the skin of my lower back.

Around us the spirits shifted and shimmered, their bodies pressing in tight. The back of Erik’s neck was all I saw, the hint of a tattoo that I guessed traveled the length of his spine. Droplets of sweat running down his skin did not inspire me.

Then came whispers from every direction, teasing my ears with voices I thought I knew.

Dox.

Giselle.

Jack
.

The Triplets.

“Don’t listen to them. They prey on your loss.” Erik’s voice was tight.

“Are you hearing my parents?” I asked the question before I thought better of it.

He didn’t stumble, didn’t stop, but I saw the hesitation in him. “Yes. Their voices are calling to me.”

This was a different kind of torture, and I’d have rather faced the drovers. Here, my guilt raged as the voices of my friends accused me, told me I’d used them. Left them to die to save myself.

Alex whimpered. “No, no, I save you.”

“Alex, it’s not real, don’t listen, just hang onto me.” My voice cracked on the tears hovering so close to the surface.

His grip tightened. “I save her. Save my sister.”

I reached back and put a hand on the top of his head. “You did save her, it’s okay.”

He let out a long, low howl that shattered what was left of my control, his pain becoming mine. I let the tears come—who was going to see them? Just me, just Erik.

Of course, as hard as it was, I should have known the ghosts weren’t done.

They changed tactics. The light in the walls grew dim and I found myself stumbling to a stop. “Erik!”

“Keep moving.”

I took a step and then had to stop. A ghost floated between me and Erik.

“Little Slayer, look at me. See what you will be when we end you. See your future in my eyes.”

Anger shot through me, annihilating the fear. “Fuck off and find yourself a too tight fitted sheet.”

The ghost swayed and ducked, trying to force me to make eye contact. And a little part of me almost let him. Just to prove they couldn’t stop me. Or maybe even to see if they could show me the future. Bad, bad idea.

“Rylee, you’re close, follow my voice.”

“Not going to work.” I slammed my eyes shut at the last second, as the ghost dropped and shoved its face right in mine.

Pissed off, scared, and knowing we were running out of time, I Tracked the demon ghosts. They lit up inside my head, a perfect outline of where they all were right in front of me.

“Don’t mess with the Tracker, sheet heads!” I yelled, breaking into a jog and dodging around them with ease. A strong set of hands grabbed me and my eyes flew open.

Erik was smiling. “Yes, you are your mother’s daughter.”

Chapter 20

W
e encountered nothing
else until we reached the room where Pamela was being kept. I Tracked Milly, she was a door or two down by the feel of her threads. Sleeping, so at least that was good.

Pamela’s door was heavily etched in symbols and as I lifted my hand to touch them, Erik stopped me.

“This one is alarmed.” He pointed to a sunburst in the middle. “That one will unleash a venom that will drop anyone, knock them out for days the minute the door is touched.”

I lifted my hand again. “Even an Immune?”

Erik frowned. “It is a risk.”

“No other way, is there?”

“No. Here, these are the symbols to open the door.” He pointed out three squares interlocked. “Trace them, open the door, get hit by venom. Pray to the gods you have the best fucking immunity out there.”

He stepped back and took Alex with him. I didn’t hesitate, traced the symbols, closed my eyes, held my breath. There was a puff of air, moisture tickled my face and then nothing.

Using the bottom edge of my t-shirt, I wiped my face. “It doesn’t even smell.”

Opening my eyes, I looked at Erik and Alex who watched me. Erik waved toward the door. “You are covered in that shit now. Don’t touch your friends, or us.”

Shit. I pushed the door open.

Pamela sat up, blinking. “Rylee?”

“Don’t touch me, I’m covered in venom. But yes, who the hell did you think would come for you? Charlie?”

She jumped up, clapped her hands over her mouth and stifled a sob. “I told Milly you’d come. She said we were on our own. I think, I think she is trying to make friends with …Orion.” She breathed out his name and I knew she’d met him, saw it in the way her voice hitched and her eyes dilated. Alex ran into the room and she dropped to her knees.

“Pamie, Pamie, Pamie.”

“Alex, you came too!”

Erik clapped his hands. “There is no time. Alex, stick close to the girl. Things are about to get ugly.”

I shot a look at him. “This wasn’t ugly?”

“No one knew we were here, not until you touched that door.”

Damn it all to hell and back. “Let’s move, we still have Milly to get.” I didn’t want to think about the other problem we faced.

Thomas allowed us to bring two people out with us.

And I had three.

I would have to negotiate with him when we got back to the doorway; we were leaving no one behind.

Two doors down, and another doorway that was locked. Erik leaned in and traced the design. “No alarm on this one, no booby traps.”

Why wouldn’t they do anything for Milly’s door? The answer didn’t come to me until it swung open.

The room was sumptuous and filled with beautiful things, gold, silver, thick carpet and food of all kinds laid out on a table. Orion wanted her well fed, well cared for. His breeding stock.

The mother of the body he wanted to possess so badly.

Milly sat in a stunning, low-backed green gown that matched her eyes perfectly. Her belly had swelled, even in the few days since I’d seen her last.

“Please tell me you didn’t sign back up on Orion’s team,” I whispered.

She shot to her feet. “Rylee! You can’t be here; Orion will kill you! Why did you come?”

My eyes met her and the years between us rose. “You’re my sister, as much as Berget, as much as Pamela. And I don’t leave my family behind.”

Her eyes welled, tears slipping down her cheeks, but she dashed them away. “Then we’d better haul ass, because if Orion doesn’t know you’re here now, he will.”

I didn’t want to tell her what we knew, that Orion wanted her for the child in her belly. That he wanted to possess her baby, not kill it.

No, this was not the place. We’d get her out and then tell her.

Erik led the way, but Milly was at his side, also helping to direct us. Pamela and Alex walked in between and I brought up the rear.

That Milly knew the lower hallways so well was … disturbing and my gut told me something was off. Shit.

“Wait.”

They all stopped and looked back at me. “Erik. You lead. Milly, let him do his job.”

“But I know where there are dead ends to avoid.” She frowned at me, but it was confusion that covered her face, not anger.

“Let him lead.”

She sucked her lower lip in between her teeth and slowly nodded. “I understand.”

Erik lifted an eyebrow at me and I waved him forward. Slowly, my gut stopped clenching, and feeling like I was going to lose my lunch. Milly’s back swayed ahead of me, supple and unbothered by the extra weight in her belly. Not at all how she’d been walking back at the farmhouse, last time I’d seen her.

“Milly, give us some light, would you?”

“I can do it.” Pamela said, lifting her hand.

“No. I want Milly to do it.”

The doppelganger in the green dress stopped and planted her feet. “How did you know?”

“Does it matter?” I pulled a sword free as Erik spun. “Milly” was cornered; Erik lunged toward her, his hand out and she shrieked, her spine stiffening as she arced backwards, right in half, her head touching the back of her ankles.

Pamela let out a cry and flung her hand toward the demon. A burst of fire erupted, eating up the dress in a split second.

The demon scuttled toward us upside down and backward and still managed to dodge Alex and Pamela; I snagged my whip and snapped it forward. The leather coiled around the neck of the demon scuttling toward us.

Heart, it was about heart. I tightened my grip and felt the flow of energy—I could almost tell what it was—and then the whip tightened and the demon exploded without a sound, ash and dust floating down.

I turned and ran toward the room the doppelganger had been in. Tracking Milly, I felt her there, sleeping.

Quiet.

The room was no longer furnished, but a bare cell, like Pamela’s, and in the middle instead of a table full of food, was a large trunk.

“How did you know it wasn’t her?” Pamela and Alex skidded into the room.

“Remember how much she was complaining about the extra weight, how her back hurt? She was walking fine. Like she wasn’t even pregnant.” My hands skimmed over the trunk, but there were no latches, no key hole, no way in or out I could find.

“Erik! How do we break this open?”

He was at my side, doing the same thing as me, his hands searching for an entry point. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

I Tracked Milly, could almost see how she’d be curled up in the box. Fuck, we didn’t have time. I had to take the chance. I pulled a sword out. Erik stepped back and nodded.

“Do it.”

I lifted the blade high, holding the handle tight with both hands and prayed I didn’t hit her. With everything I had, I drove the blade down the inside edge of the box. I didn’t feel anything like flesh and I let out a slow breath. Going slow wasn’t an option, the box bit in hard to my blade, seeming to hold it tight and keep it from cutting. Teeth gritted, I jerked the blade to the left, hit the corner and then tipped the blade and went to the floor.

The box cracked, groaned and fell open. Milly spilled out, her hair tangled and dirty, her face pale and bruised but she was alive. I bent to touch her, then remembered the venom.

“Erik, can you carry her?”

He didn’t answer, just scooped her up in his arms. “We need to get out. Look at the wolf’s bracelet.”

I looked to see the bracelet fading. “Shit, we need a way upstairs or Orion is going to win by default.”

The building around us shivered. I looked at Erik and he shrugged. “Don’t know.”

I directed my question to the wall, to the monster who made up the structure. “You can hear us? You know we want to stop Orion, but we have to get out of here.”

The building again shivered and floor below us shifted, lifting us toward the ceiling.

“Oh shit.”

That was not what I’d been hoping for.

“Erik!”

“Let me think.”

I crouched as the ceiling touched my head. “Think faster. Pamela, Alex, lay on the floor. Pam, if it starts to squish us, you fire away, understand?”

She nodded, blue eyes hard, but not afraid.

Erik crouched, Milly unmoving in his arms. “The building is alive and can hear us, so I’m guessing that it doesn’t like what Orion is doing to it.”

The building gave a loud groan, pitched suspiciously like a “
Yes
.”

I ran with it. “Then you’ll help us get out?”

Another groaning, “
Yes
.”

There was no other option at that point. We had to trust the building that was alive, that was likely some sort of demon, and hope for the best.

Yeah, not really a gamble I wanted to take, but what other choice did we have?

I held my breath as the ceiling drew close and as Pamela lifted her hand, the ceiling shimmered and pulled back.

Only one problem. Seemed like we were about to get the express route. The panel below us began to pick up speed.

“Lie down, Rylee,” Erik said, doing so himself and laying Milly flat. The walls around us flashed by and I forced myself to look up as each floor above us drew close and then disappeared a hairs breadth before smashing into us. I didn’t know why it had to be that way, but I didn’t care. We were getting the hell out of here.

As fast as the ride up started, it was over, the building let out a final groan. “Go.”

I sat up. Shit, we were in the room Alex and I crawled into what felt like hours ago. I glanced at his ankle. Only the faintest shimmer of gold showed. We were running against the clock, but I managed to keep my manners intact.

“Thank you.”

I stood, Pamela and Alex scrambled toward the window and Erik followed.

I paused and put my hand on the building. “Why?”

The building, a living entity demons carved out as their base, gave me an answer I didn’t know how to react to.

“Not all demons bad. Remember.”

Well shit. “I’ll remember.”

I climbed out the window. “Alex, you lead the way back to the gate. Smell our back trail.”

He gave me a snappy salute. “Yes, boss!”

Behind us, the building groaned, the ground around the base shooting up in large chunks, and demons—lots and lots of demons—poured out of the windows.

“Time to go.” Erik hitched Milly a little higher in his arms and took off, Alex running beside him.

Pamela stared at the demons, her eyes glittering with hate. “I want to kill them all.”

How much had she seen, how much had they hurt her? I pointed after Erik. “Another time, Pam. We’ll have another shot at them.”

Running flat out, we barely stayed ahead of the horde. Alex ran in front, nose to the ground and then in the air, then back to the ground. I couldn’t see any flash of gold, and that worried me.

We had to make it; Thomas had to hold the doorway for us.

Otherwise, we might as well give up.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

Three hours. Thomas held up his finger. “I will open the veil. If they are not there, waiting for us, there is no re-opening it.”

Liam ground his teeth. “Thomas.”

The necromancer looked at him. “Yes?”

“If she isn’t there, you are holding the veil open until I say. Understand?”

Thomas snorted. “Negotiations were made, you’d change them now?”

“These are lives on the line, not negotiations.” Liam stepped closer, so Thomas and he were almost nose to nose. “They are lives that are needed more than any other in the world. You will hold that veil open until I call cease.”

He stepped back and nodded for Thomas to go ahead.

Megan gave him a look, her eyes full of worry; she mouthed something at him. Something that looked like ‘kill him.’ Yeah, that was not going to happen. Right at that moment there was nothing else he could do. Thomas would betray them, or he wouldn’t. They would just have to wait and let the scene play out.

The necromancer put a hand on Frank’s shoulder then one on Megan’s, and the two teenagers slumped a little. Across from them, the veil began to open, finally revealing the same archway Rylee and Alex stepped through only three hours past.

No one was there.

No Rylee. No Alex.

Just a vast empty plain. At least Megan had been wrong about that. Thomas had so far kept to his word. Now Liam had to get him to hold it a little longer.